I'm interested in the artists, not your brand. In this day and age it's meaningless whether a band is on Capitol, Columbia, RCA or Reprise.

If you remove all of the promo videos of your artists from YouTube, I'm not going to go out of my way to search for the multiple "approved" sites you've stashed them on, with those sites' various levels of annoying bloat, ads, malware and whatever else. I'm not going to seek some videos out at Spike, then others at MTV, then still others at your official label website, then Hulu and Mumu and FrouFrou or wherever else your arcane, antiquated contracts dictate that the promo videos are "allowed" to be viewed. I'm simply not going to bother if they're not all available for watching in one easily accessible place, which means I won't see those promo videos at all, which means that the reason you funded those videos to begin with — TO PROMOTE THE SALE OF THE ALBUMS — won't happen.

Every time I see a deleted YouTube video replaced by "This has been removed due to a copyright claim by WEA/EMI/BMG Corp/Inc/Ltd", I don't cheer for the victory of artists' rights, I'm saddened by the fact that your extreme myopia and deranged overzealousness about protecting those rights have killed the possibility of promotion which might have resulted in those artists making some actual money for their work.

And I don't believe that I'm the only music listener who feels this way.

Word!

I've always had a hunch that the most famous and recognized music label of all time is K-Tel.

Go get 'em, Linda!

Sign me up Linda.

great grandma, what is a record label

Right On, Ms Linda!

I agree 100% with Linda's pointed and articulate diatribe.

However, please don't bash frou frou. It's a good site...really!

Don't even get me started on the plethora of now-silent fan-made videos which have had their audio stripped in the name of copyright infringement. As if that would ever actually cost them a single sale. Greedy money-hungry twats (can I say that down here? )

The ironic thing here is both the audio & video quality on you tube are so poor that it's worthless to pirates or collectors: the only purpose is as promotion for the labels, kind of like AM radio in the 60's!

B.I.N.G.O.

I agree, too. I couldn't care less what label's logo is on a CD. The sad thing is, I don't think the record companies get it. Artists don't need them anymore. The game has changed, and they're blowing their chance to stay in it.

You really shouldn't go posting Linda's hooties in a public forum!

I have thought that at least part of the reason some of the people, all of them males,were so readily led was that Ms Liberty gave them at least two good reasons to follow. Which is not to say, of course, that the causes of freedom and justice were not on their minds.

Very well said, Linda.

EXACTLY! They are just so clueless.

I agree with Linda, even though I am one of those old-fashioned fans who really does care whether a release is on RCA or Reprise. To me the labels are an integral part of music history, and I am a music historian. I simply don't feel all the reissue labels like BGO and Rhino have as much identity and as high a profile as the original labels.

But on the other hand, I doubt BGO is suing there customers.............

I don't disagree with you there, Goog. I was talking strictly about the here and now. I don't feel that RCA or Reprise (or insert label here) are an automatic guarantee of quality and/or style today as they might have been 30/40/50 years ago.

The labels act as if their brands have genuine current value to consumers, as if the brands are more important than the artists themselves ... as if a "Sony Promo Video Site" (of the sort that the major labels repeatedly threaten to build in order to frighten YouTube into submission) would be as much of an attraction to music buyers as a site like YouTube where all artists are stored and easily found in one place.

In that sense the major labels' brands mean shit to me, and in fact are getting in the way of the ease with which I should be able to explore promo videos by artists and see if their music is something I'd want to spend my money on. Seriously, does anyone in 2009 wake up and think "I want to find out about new EMI artists today!" ...? 99% of the time with new or unfamiliar bands who are signed with the majors, the label they happen to be on is just about the last thing I'd find out about them.