This is also a pet peeve of mine (I tried to find an old classic Campbell's commercial the other day, and the only copies had been removed due to copyrights. What?! You are preventing me from seeing your commercial somewhere other than TV even though I am seeking you out? What's that about?).
Anyway, today I read an interesting article on MediaPost (unfortunately subscription required, but I've included a screenshot of the article below). The main point of the article: Making entertainment available for free increases demand, which ultimately results in sales. This includes both officially sponsored content and pirated content. The article cites successful examples of this theory such as the Monty Python YouTube Channel and the RadioHead "pay what you want" online campaign.
This follows the same theory as free samples. Maybe people who would never buy your album would after hearing a song or two for free on YouTube. Why? They don't know if they like your music and won't pay until they do. But, once they like it, they won't want to go back to YouTube and hit play and search over and over again. It's not convenient. You can't automatically have playlists or upload them to your iPod for on the go convenience. Same reason you should be on Pandora, let people discover you, remember you, and appreciate you for allowing them to have free content. After all, I didn't respect Campbell's right to be copyrighted in some rational inner battle, rather, I was annoyed I couldn't share the commercial I loved.
What are your opinions?
MediaPost Article (click through to zoom in)
