The RIAA Armageddon has begun

Confused by something. Sometimes at work, it's convenient for me to listen to a full album off YouTube. Like right now--freezing-rain day, no kids. I went to listen to Blonde on Blonde, and it's been taken down because of copyright. Tried the Byrds, and there are a number of albums still up. I'm listening to Mr. Tambourine Man right now.

Same company, same vintage. Is the only difference that Dylan (or his lawyers) are more aggresive in monitoring this kind of thing?

why not use spotify which has all of blonde on blonde on it and is legal?

I'm in Canada, and we don't have it. It's just a spur of the moment thing with me anyway, and if YouTube doesn't have one thing, they'll always have something else I'm just as happy to listen to. When I'm at home, I just use the funny-looking machine that goes round and round.

i've been thinking about getting one of those

Any thoughts on the question? I always thought it was companies who policed copyright--is it the artists themselves?

i doubt Bob Dylan is policing youtube

someone's doing it! dylan seems to be extra vigilant on youtube -- it must be something the artist polices, rather than the label? or something the artist requests of the label.
you can find a bunch of dylan bootleggy stuff on youtube by searching for blind boy grunt or elston gunn...

Dylan has always been vigilant about copyright. Obviously he's delegating that, Bob is not behind his laptop sending compliance requests, but his wishes are clearly "I give permission when and where my stuff is to be used"

I think short of Prince it's total whack-a-mole. For all you know, the Byrds were taken down before you looked for them, then put up again by the time you went to Dylan. And the opposite may be true tomorrow.

Dylan - or say Springsteen - has never put the full kibosh on everything like Prince has. They know the bootlegs and whatnot ultimately benefit them. Prince is just being capricious.

That's what I figured--Bob in pajamas monitoring YouTube didn't compute, but I do believe some people probably get paid very well to do it on his behalf. The Byrds seem a little less interested these days.

Missed Josh's post. Maybe I just got lucky today.

(Except the link says "Published on July 1, 2012," so it's been up there for almost a year.)

Bob always monitors YouTube in a cravat and a jaunty hat

yeah I think a lot of this is up to individual artists giving direction to the labels/lawyers. Dylan is clearly super-anal about this stuff to an irritating degree, as is Prince. The Byrds - being a band, and one with a long history of legal tangles (doesn't Crosby own the name now?) - are more likely to be a little looser about stuff. This is one thing I appreciate about the Beach Boys, fwiw, absolutely everything is online somewhere.

I think it's the same everywhere, really - there must be actual complaints or eyeballs on the infraction for something to be taken down, but I doubt anyone has the dollars (loonies?) to sit around scouring for specific copyright violations. Save Prince, who is a loon. I imagine in most instances it's actually the label, not the artist, through various strongarm tactics. but labels are in no position to be absolutely thorough.

Beach Boys, fwiw, absolutely everything is online somewhere.

Probably because no one in the group even knows how to use email.

The really good news is, I see at least three links that will teach me how to play "Mr. Tambourine Man" on a guitar, so who needs Blonde on Blonde?

I bet with Dylan it's less direction than some proxy operating independently. Like, he hires a lawyer and tells him to do whatever he sees fit, and then the lawyer makes the call. And then 10 years later Dylan sues the lawyer for wasting his money.

xpost Folk music, for the folks!

Probably because no one in the group even knows how to use email.

surely there is a Mike Love song about e-mail and the internet just waiting to be written

"Spirit of America Online"

lol

Had to Text Ya

I bet with Dylan it's less direction than some proxy operating independently. Like, he hires a lawyer and tells him to do whatever he sees fit, and then the lawyer makes the call.

yeah I strongly doubt any of this has crossed Dylan's desk in at least thirty years

I wouldn't be surprised if Bob's never seen YouTube.

Not to go all A.J. Weberman, but that's something I'd like to see: Bob Dylan's desk. I'd like to think something like this, but he probably just picked it up from Walmart.

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/4/7/0/8/9/7/webimg/638025486_o.jpg

Bob Dylan's 115th Desk.

Bet he stole his desk from Dave Van Ronk.

I know he had a very folky looking desk in 1964, then he bought one of those fancy Carnaby St. desks in 1965. Got booed and heckled by his housekeeper.

fwiw yeah I doubt Dylan even knows what Youtube is BUT I bet he gave some angry "no one gets my music for free maaan" rant to a lawyer a few times and the resultant policy was promptly put in place

It's a little known fact that Bob Dylan doesn't even have working electricity.

on the bonus cuts from some recent album - together through life? - which are taken from an episode of his radio show, dylan's talking up, i forget, whatsername the singer, and he instructs the listener, 'go on to YOU tube…'

Yeah, I was thinking about that on the way home. Sometimes Dylan seems to want to present himself as an ascetic monk, oblivious to whatever the rest of the world's interested in, and I'm sure in some regards he is. But when I read his memoirs, I was often surprised/amused when he'd make reference to some pop-culture name you wouldn't think in a million years he'd have been aware of (the first one that comes to mind is Gorgeous George, the wrestler, but there were others).

well shit the man's been on tour for forty years, reading saint augustine can't be the only thing he does in his downtime

lol @ the idea that dylan wouldn't know what youtube was

I feel like there's probably a more apt thread for this, but someone tell me what it is:
http://johndarnielle.tumblr.com/post/47019871450/so-people-ask-me-this-sometimes-and-i-appreciate

Dude didn't know what overdubbing was (or that it was possible) until 1970 or 1971. Not knowing about YouTube would be totally in character for him.

xp

Dylan dropped booty call &Alicia Keys refs so I'm sure he knows youtube

i'm sure after he dies there'll be some big reveal about dylan avidly posting on yahoo groups about the civil war.

Dude didn't know what overdubbing was (or that it was possible) until 1970 or 1971.

really? where'd you hear that?

I think it's impossible that somebody who recorded and released an album on a major label as recently as last year wouldn't know what YT is. I mean, maybe if he really was a retired recluse that might be conceivable but not for a working professional! unless he just really never talks to anyone else and everyone around him is afraid to ever speak to him?

plus j. quoted him up there referencing youtube so...

really? where'd you hear that?

this is in his bio iirc

he didn't *do* any overdubbing until 1970 or thereabouts, he probably knew it was possible....

found the quote ""When I started making records, you sat in a room and sang your songs and what it sounded like on your side of the glass is what it sounded like on the other side of the glass. Somewhere along the line that changed, and I'm not sure why. I honestly didn't know you could do an overdub until like 1975."

sounds like bs or exaggeration possibly

well yeah. but he did say it.

Yeah, I was thinking about that on the way home. Sometimes Dylan seems to want to present himself as an ascetic monk, oblivious to whatever the rest of the world's interested in, and I'm sure in some regards he is. But when I read his memoirs, I was often surprised/amused when he'd make reference to some pop-culture name you wouldn't think in a million years he'd have been aware of (the first one that comes to mind is Gorgeous George, the wrestler, but there were others).

Hearing a Paula Abdul song on a windswept day in New Orleans. I love the Oh Mercy chapter.

Looking at the book "Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960-1994" on google books, it says The Boxer is the first track where he doubled his vocals. so '69 or '70.

xp haha, yeah he said it. but you'd have to have some serious blinders on to be a world famous recording artist and not know about that stuff. his vocals are doubletracked on "the boxer," recorded in 1970.

oh there you go. of course, that might be the producer just taking two vocal takes, not like it's an amazing overdub job. i like the idea of dylan hearing it with the two vocals and thinking: "who is that other dude singing with me"