Music Rights Killed The Video Star

Music rights have changed the way skate videos and parts are made. Long gone are the earlier days of the '90s and early 2000s, when skateboarding videos were small enough that unless you planned on being sold in Best Buy or major chain retailers, you could throw caution to the wind and use whatever you pleased. Jenkem and Quartersnacks have done excellent pieces on how the legal side of it works and its effects on video creation. 

We've gotten used to the music rights woes; now it's old news. Even Tony Hawk had music rights trouble in the days leading up to his swan song video part.

Skateboard companies have been dragged begrudgingly into the confines of the real world and now have to operate like semi-normal businesses. Queue the label-cleared sad song and learn to adapt.

Who will be first? It seems the skaters riding the next wave have begun. Instagram and social media were first and seamlessly adopted by the masses. YouTube has been the real powerhouse for years, but only recently have the most respected figures in our 'cool' obsessed record store-like culture started to dabble in their own channels, moving past previous fears of being labeled a 'YouTuber.' 

In 2013, Instagram launched videos and gave skaters the first taste of control free of the media and brand gatekeepers. You no longer had to wait for your clips to end up in the team video years down the road or for your interview to get scheduled in print. Everyone had instant access in their pockets, and the gates were open and flooding. 

Fast forward eleven years. YouTube and Instagram in tandem still reign supreme, but the content machines have churned and burned so much that it's hard to separate the value from the vapor. The music rights negotiations are taking longer while the view counts are getting smaller. 

So what's a skater to do? Take control and start their own channel free of major music rights hoops, product release schedules, and anyone else telling them when the world can see what they've worked so hard to create. Hell, while they're at it, might as well spark up the age-old debate of who owns the footage. Is it the skater doing the skating, the filmer pressing record, or the brand that paid the filmer and for all those trips around the world? 

You can see it from a brand's financial side, from a filmer's side, or from the side that feels right, the skater's. They put their body, life, and mental health on the line and should be able to do whatever the hell they please with those clips. It turns out the next generation is pretty savvy on the 'ol YouTube, and the algorithm isn't bad either. 

So, will listening to your favorite pro skater telling you to like and subscribe to their channel for their newest video part be the future of skateboarding media? Will brands and media companies need to pivot from producers and owners to facilitators left picking up the scraps? 

One thing seems certain: all the eyeballs media companies leveraged and the seal of approval brands once held are quickly changing. There are options now: brands can play the legal game, invest money for rights, loosely work within YouTube's guidelines while risking years of work getting taken down upon launch, or push everything into supporting the skaters doing their own thing. 

Chances are the next wave will be a combination of all of the above, and for brands and media to hold their value, they'll have to add value. It will force better storytelling, better plans, better brands. Let's see who's surfing.