Rick’s Writer Gets Rolled – 16 Bucks For 150 Million Views
Says Google ‘exploited’ him
The man who co-wrote “Never Gonna Give You Up,” the 1980s song revitalized by the Rickrolling phenomenon on YouTube last year, is accusing Google of exploiting him.
The music video, featuring singer Rick Astley, has been viewed more than 150 million times on YouTube but Pete Waterman earned about $16, just enough money to buy a CD.
The cult of Rickrolling helped generate more than 150 million views of “Never Gonna Give You Up” but only $16 for song’s author.
Waterman told U.K publication The Telegraph, that he earns more from local radio than YouTube. He also compared himself to the “exploitation of foreign workers in Dubai.”
“I feel like one of those workers, because I earned less for a year’s work off Google or YouTube than they did off the Bahrain government,” Waterman told the paper.
Rick should have got himself a viral marketer working for him long ago – I see the original video now doesn’t allow embeds, and has links to iTunes…
For those that haven’t been Rickrolled…
