Random Thoughts From Marybeth

Describing the Elephant: Missing the Big Picture

The Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit yesterday against MySpace, the popular social networking Web site, for allowing users to upload and download songs and music videos.

...In a statement yesterday, Universal said its music and videos “play a key role in building the communities that have created hundreds of millions of dollars of value for the owners of MySpace. Our goal is not to inhibit the creation of these communities, but to ensure that our rights and those of our artists are recognized.”

I think that Universal Music is placing a rather high value on the "contribution" that its music has added to MySpace and I think they are overlooking the likelihood that the communities that are built around music increases the fan base for artists which increases music sales. Also, it only considers the gain made by MySpace and the article does not state how much (if any) they believe was lost by Universal Music.

I understand that Universal Music has an obligation to protect the rights of their artists but I'm not sure that this is the best way to do so. I doubt the fans think of themselves as pirates. For them, web space is just an extension of real space. You hang up posters of musicians in your bedroom, you post pics on your page. You play your latest CD or music download for friends, you make the same available online. In most cases, the generation that populates most of MySpace just want to share something they like. There isn't any desire to "stick it to the man". That was their parents' (or grandparents') thing.

Will users of MySpace see this as simply a law suit against a Web site or as a personal attack from an industry they support? Maybe a little of both, but what they know rationally is not always what they feel. As a group, teenagers tend to view everything as all about them.

American teenagers spent about $159 billion last year. How much is viral advertising to this group worth?

The title of the post comes from this story.