The music industry still don`t get it!

Yesterday I got following e-mail from Youtube

Dear BobbySenor:We have disabled the following material as a result of a third-party notification from Sony Music Entertainment claiming that this material is infringing: The Bob Dylan History

The video in question is a two minutes affair I made way back in 2002. It is a time travel through Dylan’s life based on his music and images of Dylan. It was pretty good and was actually shown on the Norwegian National TV channel NRK.

Sony Music has obviously the law on their side. From their perspective this is illegal use of Sony Music’s and Dylan’s material. However this video was made by a Dylan fan for fans and others interested. It is not a commercial video whatsoever!

Ten, fifteen thousand people did watch the video on their own initiative before it was stopped by Sony. They represented thousands of potential customers and buyers of Dylan's music. In other words, the video was a free promotion more than as a threat to Dylan's economic interests.

Youtube is for the music industry a free advertising channel. I can`t understand how they can miss this point. Without Youtube Susan Boyle would not be a phenomenon and last year's best-selling artists.

Sony Music Entertainment is committed to the important task to stop the fans - rather than creating new services and features that will help the industry to regain its position and credibility.

What if Sony Music instead of using energy to spot and disabling videos instead used their energy to build a portal with links to "approved" Dylan fan videos? What if they combined it with a store where one could buy CDs, fan effects, and music in high-resolution audio formats and not only in hopeless MP3. What if they used Dylan fans as a sales force instead of forbid them do expose their admiration and respect for Dylan and other artist on Youtube and in social media in general?

But they miss the point. They use their energy to conserve and protect old fashioned business models instead of creating new ones.

I will not upload the video again. That's Sonys loss – not mine. So far my Pink Floyd Roger Waters video is still available. http://bit.ly/alqMar Enjoy. It will soon disappear!