There's been a good bit of discussion of the potential for amateur productions to overtake the media sphere, offering an alternative to or supplanting expensive DRM'd productions. Most amateur stuff, of course, isn't up to the mark (my own efforts in ceramics being a good example), but the Internet is spreading the word about that which is. Case in point, the amazing rendition of Pachelbel's Canon by anonymous Korean lad with guitar:

The video clip. The New York Times article (reporter tracked the guy down):

EIGHT months ago a mysterious image showed up on YouTube, the video-sharing site that now shows more than 100 million videos a day. . . A black-and-white title card gave the performer’s name as funtwo.

The piece that funtwo played with mounting dexterity was an exceedingly difficult rock arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon, the composition from the turn of the 18th century known for its solemn chord progressions and its overexposure at weddings. But this arrangement, attributed on another title card to JerryC, was anything but plodding: it required high-level mastery of a singularly demanding maneuver called sweep-picking.

My prediction: for the really good amateurs: the Net will function for them as a sort of international bottom-up version of "American Idol" (I hate to make that comparison--such a silly show). But the point is, someone will give them a contract. At which point many of them will become as interested in DRMing their content as any of the professionals (which is to say, some will, some won't). Rather than supplanting professionally produced content, they be enfolded into whichever successful business models emerge. Maybe DRM, maybe not... And some of them might end up being interested in DRMing their stuff from the start, to restrict alterations (such as the morphing of a photo of a child into porn) if not to restrict copying.

Be interesting how it all plays out.

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 1:59 PM | Art

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