With over 40 years experience in the music industry, Debbie Harry certainly knows a thing or two about how money generated from music should be dealt with. As part of the 80s band Blondie, She believes that the success of YouTube and all its billions of views mean that the acts that garner such popularity don’t get enough money or royalties from their videos. This is an issue that many modern artists face.
She believes the ups and downs of YouTube and its pay system mean that one minute an artist can gain huge fame and fortune and be top of the tree before falling to the bottom when videos miss their views targets.
Debbie points to music as the key format of success for the Google owned company since its launch in 2006. Yes, music needs YouTube but equally YouTube needs music. The conglomerate of Google as a whole made £52 billion alone and is the second biggest country in the world.
Debbie believes a change in American law is needed and artists must join together to lobby politicians and congress from changing regulations. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is the law in question and in principle protects artists but of course there is a loophole that means that the law is almost impossible to enforce. Debbie amongst others like Katy Perry and Taylor Swift have all stood up for their musical rights in recent times. Ultimately however it will take the general public and many more artists to take YouTube on and make a change.
#Peace.Love.DebbieHarry
