Patrick Walker, the Head of Video Partnerships at YouTube, outlined the site’s efforts in making progress towards deals with artists and royalty collecting groups at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton. Youtube blocked all premium music videos in the UK, after a failed deal with PRS for Music in March. Walker told the BCC that everything is “great” with the major labels. As for PRS, he said:
“We’re working very hard to come to an arrangement with PRS and we won’t strike a deal unless it makes economic sense. They’ve been a good partner in the negotiations and we’re trying to come up with something that makes sense for everyone involved. Ultimately no-one wins if the videos stay off the service, so we’re trying to come up with a win-win scenario.”
Australian producer Pogo, aka Fagottron on Youtube, makes music by remixing sounds from movies, and adding his own chillout electronica. He’s creates music videos using spliced scenes from films, and has interpreted old Disney classics like Alice in Wonderland and The Sword In The Stone, as well as other movies like the 1956 film The King & I and Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone.
Hulu, the site that offers free streaming TV shows and movies, is trying to strike deals with major labels Universal, EMI, Sony and Warner to host music videos. The dealings indicate that Hulu is planning to compete directly with YouTube-backed music video site Vevo.com, which is expected to launch later this year.
YouTube has already teamed up with Universal Music Group (UMG) for Vevo, but is also interested in negotiating the addition of the remaining labels to the new video site. Ironically, if all goes as planned, Hulu and Vevo will both stream the exact same music videos licensed from the same labels. They will undoubtedly be contending with each other for our attention in the near future, but if they are offering the same content, how will we choose between the two?
PRS for Music, a collecting society for UK songwriters, composers and music publishers, confirmed yesterday that it agreed “commercial terms” with music streaming service Spotify. PRS for Music wants to force YouTube/Google into a deal to pay for the use of UK music, and supposedly the agreement with Spotify shows that such arrangements are possible with streaming services.
Guy Chambers, who wrote the Robbie Williams hit Angels, said: “Google is manipulating the PRS for Music dispute in a deeply cynical way; to confuse the public into believing that the industry is outdated and behaving in a protectionist manner.”
With all the music streaming and download services available, it’s difficult to decide which one to use. iTunes recently introduced their tiered pricing, but Amazon is selling top-tier songs at a cheaper price. Even though iTunes controls the download market, fans looking to buy music might be enticed by Amazon’s price drop.
On the free streaming front, Spotify released libspotify Tuesday night, which allows third-party developers to write applications for the service, and YouTube, though reported to have blocked “premium” videos in the UK and Germany, still provides most music for free, through user-made videos.
Today, German music fans visiting YouTube will be frustrated, because certain videos have been blocked as the result of a failed licensing deal between Google and German organization GEMA.
GEMA represents 60,000 German artists, and said in a statement that incident is “similar to what happened in Britain two weeks ago.” We reported on the blocked videos in Britain, and the ensuing revolt of PRS for Music and the Featured Artists Coalition. Will there be a similar rebellion in Germany?
One theory becoming increasingly common among the more trusting musicians, is that releasing material for free on the Web, particularly through YouTube, inspires fans to then go out and purchase the music or buy concert tickets. To some extent, this is true, according to a study by market research firm Ipsos MediaCT, which looked at the YouTube habits of more than 1,500 people in the United Kingdom for March 2009.
After watching a YouTube music video, 50 percent of adult users decided to purchase the music. Going deeper, the survey indicated that 36 percent of those purchasers opted to buy a CD, while 15 percent paid for a digital download. Only seven percent of YouTubers-turned-purchasers also coughed up cash for concert tickets.
The music industry’s songwriters and artists have voiced their support of PRS for Music (previously The Performing Rights Society), accusing Google of underpaying royalty fees. The response is because Google, owner of YouTube, removed millions of premium music videos from the site after a failed deal over royalty rates with PRS for Music. The artist’s opinions are posted at fairplayforcreators.com, in which Andy Gill,from 70′s English post-punk band Gang Of Four, argues that:
“Google and YouTube pretend they are providing a public service. They are not; they are huge money making machines who make incredible fortunes for their owners at the expense of songwriters who get paid no royalty. The vast majority of PRS for Music members earn less than a few thousand pounds a year. It is a totally unfair situation.”
Amateur videos on featuring copyrighted songs on YouTube are being muted or removed, due to a failed deal between the video site and Warner Music Group. The disagreement revolves around the fees paid to Warner for the use of its music videos. Since YouTube uses an automatic process to find unlicensed material on its site, videos of amateurs covering songs and using copyrighted background music are targeted. Will Tanous, a spokesman for Warner Music, defends the company’s position:
“We and our artists share the user community’s frustration when content is unavailable. YouTube generates revenues from content posted by fans, which typically requires licenses from rights holders. Under the current process, we make YouTube aware of WMG content. Their content ID tool then takes down all unlicensed tracks, regardless of how they are used.”
