Led Zep, YouTube, and a Broken Record from Warner Music

As we report on Portfolio.com today, within hours of Led Zeppelin's historic reunion concert in London on Monday, fans in attendance started posting videos of the performance on YouTube -- and Warner Music lawyers started pulling them down.

The disconnect -- the inability of music labels to get it -- is continually astounding.

Our story said this: The Telegraph reported that Led Zeppelin record sales skyrocketed 500 percent the day after the concert. Warner has good reason to want to protect its intellectual property in this case, given that the company is expected to release a DVD of the concert for sale next year.

Record sales don't rocket 500 percent because of a concert seen by 20,000 people. The DO rocket 500 percent or more when millions of people around the world see a few video clips and renew their love of an old band. And does Warner Music actually think that people would skip buying a beautifully-produced DVD because they watched a few songs shot with a cell phone from seats near the rafters?

Granted, there's a lot more at stake for Zeppelin compared to far lesser draws. But I thought it was interesting -- last time I saw my friend Roger McGuinn play (to a packed house at The Barns at Wolftrap near DC), he at one point asked everyone to get out their cell phones, video a song or two, and -- please -- post them on YouTube...

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