To get any Internet attention these days, you either have to be caught in a hideously embarrassing moment or you must be seen in your full glory—stage, costume, make-up, lighting—singing your heart out over an orchestra to a live audience. An MP3 just isn’t going to cut it anymore. You need to be on YouTube. Few Web surfers spend their day clicking on links to sound clips, but the vast emporium that is YouTube will suck users in for hours, leading them from one film clip to another—maybe even to yours. Here’s all you need to be a part of it: getting started, getting attention, and the legal and collegial matters surrounding your rise to YouTube stardom.
How to Upload Videos to YouTube
1. Create an account. Go to www.youtube.com and click the “Sign Up” link in the upper-right corner. You will be taken through a registration process similar to most other membership sites—inputting your e-mail address, creating a username and password, and agreeing to a privacy policy.
2. Get your videos onto your computer. This will probably mean having them on DVD and “ripping” them onto your hard drive using special software such as HandBrake (download for free at www.handbrake.fr).
3. Edit your videos to the length you want them using a video editing program. This can be done easily on QuickTime Pro. (It is a paid download, but well worth the $29.99 price tag if you don’t have any other video editing software.)
4. Click the yellow “Upload” button in the upper-right corner of your YouTube home page.
5. Follow the directions on the screen. They should be fairly self-explanatory.
6. Consider how you want to title your videos—with the aria, composer, opera, company, or your name? There are many options for classical performers, and you can’t fit all the possible information into one title.
7. Write a description and tags to help direct more people to your video.
8. Select the category “Music.”
9. There are a number of other optional fields to fill out. Complete the ones you want and then save your information.
10. Be patient. The video has to be processed, and it may not be officially posted for a few hours.
How to Get Your Videos Seen
“Share your video with the world.”
I’m not waxing poetic. That’s actually the option you need to select under “Privacy.” Otherwise, no one will see it except those you choose—which can be useful for certain purposes, such as submitting an audition video or receiving criticism from a trusted colleague, but not for advertising yourself.
Tag everyone.
We’ve all googled people we know—and those we don’t know. That means the more people you have tagged in your videos, the more people will stumble across them while googling “that mezzo” they have a secret crush on or someone they’re considering hiring. If the video is flattering to all involved, tag as many people as you can. I’ve noticed a direct correlation between how many people I have tagged in a video and how many hits it gets.
How do you tag people? At #7 above, you simply type in the names of those in your video in the box marked “tags” under “video information.” Separate tags with commas or, if you have words you specifically want grouped together, enclose them in quotes.
Select the most engaging thumbnail image and title possible.
Many people will choose whether or not to click on your video based only on its thumbnail and title. Draw them in.
Allow embedding.
There is an option that lets you allow or prevent embedding. This means that someone can post the video directly to a website, blog, forum, or e-mail so others can view it without visiting YouTube directly. A large amount of video views are through embedded players, and if you want to “go viral” and have your clip passed from one person to another, you will need embedding.
Tell people.
E-mail the link to your friends, post the video to Facebook, mention it in your blog, include it in your next mail blast. You’ve just put your singing and acting out there for the world to see—too late to be shy now!
Legalese and Etiquette
(Disclaimer: I am a singer, not a lawyer. This is the best information I could come up with, but the laws are complex and always changing. So, if you break the law and get sued, don’t come running to me. In other words, seek professional legal advice.)
You’ve just performed in an opera—fully staged, with orchestra, at a good house, with a talented cast and full chorus. You received a DVD of the performance. Proud of your work and excited to have some great clips to show to potential employers, you can’t wait to get some of this up on YouTube.
But what about everyone else involved—the company, the conductor, the other cast members, the videographer? Just whose permission do you need? Let’s look at these one by one.
Videographer?
First of all, you will need to ask the person or company who did the filming. Most professional videographers copyright their work and will probably state as much in the credits, along with a statement forbidding broadcast and distribution without permission. So they are the first person you need to contact. If the video was a nonprofessional filming made by a friend, you still need to get their permission.
Opera company?
According to the woman I spoke with at the U.S. Copyright Office, stage productions and live interpretations of a work are not subject to copyright law. (Choreography is another can of worms in and of itself.) On the other hand, most companies have a no-video/photography/recording policy, so they could come after you on that. A smaller organization might not have such policies in place—in which case, it is up to you if you want to ask permission before posting the videos.
Other artists?
According to YouTube’s FAQs, artists own the rights to use of their image. If the case were that cut and dry, however, paparazzi wouldn’t exist and footage of celebrity antics wouldn’t show up on the evening news. A little research shows that performers control use of their image for commercial (i.e., for profit) purposes.
For noncommercial purposes, and for the rest of us, we have little say over whether someone posts a video of us. Someone can flag a video of themselves as an invasion of privacy and hope that YouTube removes it. But generally speaking, if you do something in public these days, including a performance, you have to bear in mind that other people present will probably have recording devices and there is a good chance you will end up on YouTube, whether you like it or not. So there is nothing legally wrong with posting videos of other people without their permission—although, if they are featured prominently (such as in a duet), you will probably want to ask their permission.
Music publishers?
This is the kind of issue that’s always in legal battles. At the time when I first researched this article, YouTube did not own broadcasting licenses from ASCAP or BMI, but it seems that now they do—or at least have paid them in some sort of settlement. And by the time you read this, that too may have changed. Normally, the opera company will have obtained a performance license from one of these organizations, which gives them the right to present the work live. However, they will probably not have obtained a broadcast license. That means that if the music is not public domain, you are supposed to purchase a broadcast license (if YouTube doesn’t already have one, which I’m still not clear on), which can be costly.
This is the law; however, almost no one who uploads “cover songs” to YouTube obtains a license. This means that they are technically illegal, and if YouTube is notified of the copyright infringement, they may remove the video or mute the sound. The simplest way around this problem, for those preferring to stay on the right side of the law, is to upload only public domain music. Usually, a work is in the public domain when it is old enough that its copyrights have expired. Even this can be difficult to determine, though, because copyright terms may vary depending on when a work was created, due to changes in copyright laws at different times.
Post it anyway?
Despite, or perhaps because of, the confounding depths of the copyright and privacy issues involved in uploading this sort of content to YouTube, the plain fact is that the vast majority of people ignore these laws and upload what they want anyway. The worst that is likely to happen is that YouTube will remove the videos and, in extreme cases, delete the user account. Paying out of pocket for a broadcasting fee, obtaining permission from every person involved, and trying to keep abreast of ever-morphing and mind-boggling copyright laws are unrealistic guidelines for a solo artist, especially when little to no consequence is threatened.
In the real world, it becomes more a question of etiquette. Does the company mind if you post a clip? Are the other singers in the ensemble featured in a good light? The rule of “ask forgiveness, not permission” generally prevails, for better or for worse. You are likely to eventually find yourself on both ends of this dilemma. You might be considering posting a great video of yourself that could help you get work but are afraid if you ask permission of all involved parties, someone will roadblock you. Or you might one day come across an unflattering film of yourself posted by a colleague and feel angry that you weren’t consulted.
So “do unto others . . . ,” weigh your legal options carefully, and have fun. And remember that the vast majority of YouTube users are in it for the entertainment value, so if you’re not having a good time, you’re on the wrong website.
