Following pianist Krystian Zimerman’s  “YouTube is destroying music”, fellow pianist Stephen Hough took to Twitter to air his views, Stephen argued that while posting commercial CDs on YouTube is wrong, filming concerts and sharing the footage is different, providing it doesn’t disrupt the performance and can be taken down from the site if requested.

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“I don’t think YouTube is destroying music, especially when it’s recorded concerts or TV broadcasts,” he said. “No one makes a fortune anymore out of classical CDs. They are more often a calling card to create concert opportunities. Let’s not forget that producers/engineers etc. are involved here. Piracy does them out of a job more than instrumentalists.”

“When someone illegally recorded Hofmann’s 1938 Casimir Hall recital I’m not unhappy about it! Would that someone had filmed Mahler conducting or Rachmaninov in concert!”

Choral composer and conductor Eric Whitacre, who uses YouTube to his advantage in his pioneering Virtual Choir projects, has also joined the debate. Posting on Facebook last night, Eric said he ‘respectfully disagreed’ with Zimerman’s decision to walk out of his concert.

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