Comment of the Moment: The Taper Speaks on Crowd Sourcing

As we've blogged about, the recent "crowd sourced" YouTube video of Neil Young at Carnegie Hall, on 1/7/14, has been widely discussed and debated on its the ethics, morality and consequences.

Now, from the taper and editor himself, Tom Adams of Reel Life Productions has commented on the controversy on Neil Young News: The Crowd Sourcing and the Damage Done... or Not?:

Glad so many of you are enjoying my little concert film…

To be perfectly honest, I'm sort of surprised by all the hoopla surrounding this. This is certainly not the first of its kind. In fact, this type of thing has been happening for several years. I certainly recognize the complexity of the issues involved and definitely agree that there's no definitive "right answer". The issues and opinions surrounding live music recordings are of great interest to me since I have been a media producer/director/editor for 20+ years and went to school for this stuff… and I've been a drummer in bands since the early 90's…AND I've been trading music since the 80's and still have my treasured cassette collection to prove it:)

People have said 'why don't you just sit and watch the show and enjoy it instead of missing out on the whole show just to record it'…. to me before plenty of times but I did NOT miss out on a fantastic concert - i enjoyed every second of it… and I don't press the camera to my face or be obnoxious by sticking my phone in the air like so many others do. In fact, I barely look at the articulating wide-screen lcd screen of my canon sx30is (35x optical zoom) (and I dim the lcd screen settings, so it's barely visible).. in fact, for most of the show, it was sitting on the floor propped on my jacket…

and to be fair… I don't believe "Neil's Team" was actually "interviewed" - I believe he was emailed by the reporter for a comment on the subject and received the one sentence reply ' we think it's incredibly rude' comment… and I don't even think he was referring specifically to the crowd-sourced video that I produced…I actually think they were referring to the act of sticking a big glowing phone into the air and disturbing everyone around you (which is NOT how I do it…) - and for the record, I think it is indeed rude and annoying and I too wish people would stop doing it… don't know how to fix this or if we can actually stop it… The way I see it, and what I mention in the onscreen text at the beginning of the movie… is that this is great advertising ole Neiler… I'd love it if everyone who watched this film, went out and purchased Neil's whole catalog and also donated to the bridge school… Also… I love the irony in Neil's quote "Piracy is the new radio"
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/17/neil-young-piracy-is-the-new-radio_n_1889785.html) there's a lot more to be said about this but i gotta go for now…

I'll leave with one of my favorite Neil quotes: "Take my advice, don't listen to me" -from Landing on Water "Hippie Dream Also you might wanna check out the "other" crowd-sourced Neil show that I put recorded and put together: Neil Young & Crazy Horse full show 11/26/12, TD Garden, Boston

Thanks Tom! We appreciate your trying to set the record straight on this situation.

Your sharing the details makes it a lot easier for folks to assess the situation and try and do what's best.

As for us? We'll just repeat again what we said the other night on Thrasher's Wheat Radio on WBKM that the live concert moment is most sacred and nothing should detract from the experience of the audience and the artist.

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