Napster Reloaded: Solving The YouTube/NBC Problem

A lot of people are writing a lot of things about YouTube and NBC. Here’s the only one that matters:

What seems to have escaped the network’s mind is the fact that the video already aired on the program, and therefore has made as much revenue as any episode of the show normally does, not to mention the fact that the attention the video got could drive thousands more people to watch future shows. As usual, the network seems prepared to sacrifice all that free marketing for a little short-term profit. And that’s why it’s called “old” media. (emphasis mine)

A brief look back in time will show you how the music industry literally destroyed itself by going after Napster. Literally.

What the music business never figured out was that you must charge for the enabling not for the content. 

What NBC and other networks have are thousands of media producers working free of charge to edit, classify and repackage their content. They are remixing it into a way that they and their friends want.

What video content owners need to do, (what major record companies refused to do and thus destroyed themselves) is come up with a blanket license which they charge to enablers like YouTube and Revver and let the consumer do whatever the fuck they want to the content.

They will anyway.

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