Rick Beato speaks on Giacomo Turra’s plagiarism controversy: “He couldn’t play well enough to be on my channel”
Rick Beato has broken his silence on Giacomo Turra’s recent plagiarism controversy, noting how the latter once visited his studio but “couldn’t play well enough” to appear on his YouTube channel.
Giacomo Turra, the Italian guitarist and social media star, was recently accused of stealing other artists’ compositions and passing them off as his own. In a detailed takedown video last month, YouTuber Danny Sapko alleged that Turra had copied note-for-note solos from players like Jack Gardiner and Alex Hutchings, then sold tabs and backing tracks via his website and Patreon without proper credit.
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“It turns out that, from the very start of his social media rise, Giacomo’s been using other people’s compositions,” Sapko said. “This is one of the most unbelievable things I have ever seen in music.”
Addressing the controversy in a new video, Beato reveals that he had his own doubts about Turra’s skills after the guitarist visited his studio a few months ago.
“When Giacomo came in here — he was coming through town — and when he came in here and played, I realised he couldn’t play well enough to put the video out. And then I was like ‘Oh, obviously all of his videos are fake.’ But I knew that they were all playalongs.”
While Beato condemns the alleged plagiarism, he clarifies that miming performances in itself isn’t always problematic and has been “going on since the beginning of time” especially for promotional or broadcast purposes.
“The faking — okay that’s one thing but stealing other people’s music is completely not cool,” says the producer.
He also questioned the sincerity and platform of Turra’s public apology, which was posted to his (now-deleted) YouTube account rather than Instagram, where the guitarist’s audience is far larger.
“The apology appeared on YouTube, which isn’t really the platform that he’s known for. It’s really Instagram. The apology video should have come on Instagram,” he says.
Despite the criticism, Beato insists that he isn’t interested in attacking Turra for the sake of it and that he doesn’t want to “pile on here any more than anyone else has”.
“There have been many videos made over the last few weeks by all the guitar channels. People are like ‘When are you gonna say something about this, Rick?’ Okay. I’m saying it. I didn’t post the video because Giacomo couldn’t play well enough to be on my channel.”
At the time of writing, Turra’s YouTube channel has been taken down, though his Instagram remains active.
The post Rick Beato speaks on Giacomo Turra’s plagiarism controversy: “He couldn’t play well enough to be on my channel” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
