The Hypocrisy (and Ignorance) of the Music Industry
On March 4-5, Michael McDonald will perform at the Blue Note in New York to celebrate the release of his new album, ‘Soul Speak‘. It’ll be a wonderful day for Michael, but will it be for the ‘Blue Note’?
The ‘Blue Note’ just blogged about Michael’s David Letterman performance which includes an ‘embedded’ YouTube video of the gig. There’s a ton of irony in this: Will technologically incompetent lawyers representing Michael threaten the venue with a “cease and desist” letter laced with false accusations like I received last July?
What the ‘Blue Note’ has done here is no different than several videos I’ve posted to my own site which were ‘embedded’ from YouTube. Unfortunately, I was chastised and chewed up as being the perp who uploaded the videos in question that I ‘embedded’ to my site (There’s a huge difference between ‘linking’ videos and ‘uploading’ them).
The hypocrisy — and ignorance — of an industry that is littered with far too many egos and often bemoans accountability to the very people which make the industry what it is (without ‘fans’, there’s no livelihood for the industry) is more than obvious here.
Chances are, the ‘Blue Note’ won’t be chastised for embedding this video, as they are a paid gig for McD.
To date, I still haven’t received an explanation on the mixup, how I was chosen and how my e-mail address was even known. The last thing in the world I’d do to a friend is cheat him of his rights or harm his brand, product or service by distributing unauthorized works w/o permission (and, no, ‘embedding’ is not ‘distributing’).
Personally, I believe an apology from Vector Management and Michael’s lawyer is long overdue — Michael needn’t be the janitor cleaning up the actions of others (and I did mention this incident to him, and of course, he apologized — But, again, it’s not his doing), for our friendship has been nothing but inspiring over an almost 10 year period.
My only desire is that those representing him should take better precautions to avoid the possibility of alienating those who are friends and supporters of Michael. The music industry continues to demonstrate that they are not in the business of listening — Just dictating (and bullying).
Don’t forget to pick up Michael’s new album, ‘Soul Speak,’ on March 4th:
