Something that came to mind when I was writing the post Songs of 2009 is how sites like YouTube are changing how we get our media, not only videos but songs. I noticed while perusing for music to place in my post that a common theme on YouTube is to make a video that has the lyrics to a song showing along to the music. Nearly every song I looked for showed up in this formay; it’s a very handy way to just get the music without a distracting video or usually the poor sound quality of a live recording, as these ”lyrics” videos usually use a studio version. I also noticed that shortly after writing that post, one of the videos was taken down due to “terms of use violation” – I can only assume that the video was an infringement of copyright and was thus removed.

I do not know much about copyright law; I know that you are not supposed to sell any media you do not own the rights to, and iTunes won’t let you share a bought song with more than a handful of people. I am guessing the “terms of use” violations on YouTube are rampant (I am quite sure that those movies put up in 10 minute chunks are not legit). However, you notice they keep popping up. The nature of the internet, a confluence of anonymity and ease of use, creates a veritable breeding ground for such grey-area activities as taking a song you own (or got off of uTorrent, I suppose, even worse), putting some lyrics on, and hosting it on YouTube. Those who own the rights are out to stop it – but can millions of users be stopped?

I am not talking here of downloading software and such, which are clearly frowned upon and illegal – but even those are impossible to stop; first Napster then Bearshare and Kazaa and now torrenting services – but more, as I said, “grey areas.” Another example is a program I have called Radiotracker. It scans online radio stations for songs you choose, and then downloads them in whatever quality and with whatever fade-in the station used; imperfect but hey, you get a song. I didn’t listen to the station, but is it stealing? What is the future of music rights with the internet? On the one hand, it provides a handy way of selling music through places like Amazon and iTunes.

The grey areas seem to be indicative of the weakening hold the music industry has on the products it makes. Is it possible that someday they will lose what grasp they have, and music will enter its own as a part of the public domain? It hardly is so in theory now, but in practice, well, anytime anyone in my family wants to find a song quickly, a YouTube video is one of the best, fast means of doing so. I doubt this is “another brick in the wall” – as people get more and more used to having music for free, they will be less and less inclined to pay for it.

I am no expert, as I have said. However, that is how it appears to me. What do you think? Will music eventually fail to be a commodity, bought and sold? Should it?