A little bit of old news, but I still can’t get over the fact that YouTube had to remove podline6’s entire channel from their site. podline6 has been humbly covering old hits on piano and guitar for quite some time now, getting it spot on — and more — when he does covers by America and Bread. His version of “Hot Rod Hearts” on piano is even better than Robee Dupree’s. Above is my favorite America cover on guitar, “Are You There?”
Above: An emotional podline6 talks about copyright infringement
I’ve been a fan of Larry’s covers for more than a year but his account was suspended by YouTube for copyright infringement. Since when was it illegal to cover songs? It’s not like he was making any money out of it. Yeah, we know it isn’t YouTube’s fault, but record labels need to protect artists. Do artists really need all this protecting? If I were a musician and someone did a cover of my song, I’d be honored. But the record label won’t. And it’s not like he’s covering new songs … but that’s besides the point. In hindsight, why is it OK for other people to cover songs on YouTube and not be banned? And why was his entire channel banned?
So when I grab my guitar and cover songs by James Taylor, am I violating copyright law??
Larry has created a new account, under podline66 to continue to make people happy. He never did it for the money. Check his covers. He’s amazing.