YouTube and recorded music

For most of my life, it has been a high crime to record a live performance by a musician. Independent of this, in the last three years, YouTube has been filled with music that is ordinarily for sale -- both studio recordings and amateur concert videos.

But one artist at least, Joanna Newsom, has ended up with an interesting approach to these two issues. I don't know whether it is her intention, but there seems to be very few or no studio versions of her songs on YouTube, but loads of videos of her in intimate theatres, halls, etc.

I think this is the right strategy. You can no longer prevent music from being shared -- whether online or sneaker-P2P. But if you let all your fans post cell-phone videos of your songs, this is fantastic publicity that cannot replace the quality of a studio recording.

PS -- check out Sawdust and Diamonds.