Month: September 2012

If that boulder fell away from the cave door and you’re finally realizing that, as Bob Dylan propounded — that the “Times, they are a-changin” — the New Yorker has recently offered its stately, looong look at just how true this is in the music industry, especially with the innovations of, yes, YouTube, and how key a channel of change it has become. The piece dissects contemporary industry trends in a profile of Scooter Braun, belieber and manager of boy singer Justin Bieber. Braun found his now mega-star via Google’s online video system and leveraged the lad’s giant audience there to negotiate a valuable 360 record deal for his client. Braun says that, although sales of old-school products like records (what?), CDs and other physical items have declined, the music business has grown via different streams of revenue from licensing, merchandising and digital sales. Bieber is the global exemplar and Braun’s management plans call for further YouTube empire-building (see here). But even as Google seeks to lure creatives to its platform, with worldwide audiences in the hundreds of millions and even a monetization feature, YouTube continues to wrestle with legal challenges inherent in allowing audiences free, easy uploading of content — owned in various ways by talent unaware of its public, give-away posting. Sound promising for continuing or even expanded entertainment lawyer employment? YouTube has sought to quell some of the unrest with a deal...