“YouTube Has Changed Everything”? Music Faculty, Librarians, and Their Use and Perceptions of YouTube

Abstract

YouTube’s accessibility, ease of use, and depth of content are strong lures for music students. But do music teaching faculty and librarians encourage this and do they use it in their own research, teaching, and work? This study surveyed over 9,000 music faculty and over 300 music librarians in the United States. It discovered that faculty rank is at times a factor in faculty use of YouTube for teaching and research—but not always in expected ways. It also found that faculty and librarians do not entirely share perspectives concerning the quality of YouTube’s content, metadata, or copyright concerns.