Independent Artists Coming For YouTube
One of the best ways to get your music out, if you are an up and coming artist is YouTube. One of the best ways to get YouTube's attention is to run an ad on their site insinuating that they are cheap and getting over. That's exactly what the Content Creators Coalition did.
The Content Creators Coalition, also known as c3, is a non-profit, artists-run advocacy organization dedicated to working with songwriters, performers and musicians for equity in the digital world.
c3 recently started a string of ads advocating for the equal pay and play of their songs on YouTube. They are calling for Congress to update the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). As of right now the DMCA "includes the safe harbor provision which protects websites from taking blame when it comes to copyright takedowns. Some websites are profiting from the violation of copyrights but because of this loophole they are not held responsible." So even if YouTube sends someone a takedown notice, YouTube itself isn't in violation of the copyright laws and they can still make profit off of those videos, and sometimes those takedown notices are ignored. That along with unfair pay from the streaming act is what c3 is wanting to change.
In one of their ads (see video above) called "Pennies vs. Dollars" they have a music artist, a "representative" from a music streaming service and a "representative" from YouTube. The artist is collecting their money from the music that they have on the digital sites and receive dollars from the streaming service and a few coins from YouTube. Basically suggesting YouTube is getting over on how much they pay artists for their music. In another ad, titled "Take Down Shake Down" they complain to YouTube about other people using their music and them not getting take down notices. The YouTube "representative" basically says that the artists should notify those users, knowing that YouTube has over a billion users and if they can't do it then they should hire a lawyer, costing about $15,000. Making it hard for these independent artists to keep up with users misusing their music.
On October 25th c3 uploaded the ads on YouTube, less than 48 hours later YouTube sent c3 a Takedown Notice. Claiming that their ads violated their advertising policies. How ironic is that! YouTube received lots of backlash for that and three hours later YouTube sent them (c3) another email saying they re-reviewed and it did not violate any of their policies. c3 decided they didn't want to take any risks and posted their ads on Vimeo instead. At least they know that they got YouTube's attention now.