British YouTube users will soon be able to start watching their favorite music videos after Google and PRS for Music settled their long-running royalty rate fight. But YouTube has had to pay for the privilege, on a lump sum basis rather than the usual pay-per-view basis.
Music Videos On YouTube
Music videos are an integral part of YouTube. A quick glance at the latest viral video chart will tell you this much. This would seem to be a win-win situation for the Google-owned site, the record labels, and the artists involved. But that hasn’t always appeared to be the case.
Disharmony
On a large scale, Warner Bros. saw fit to remove its content from the site at the end of 2008 due to a breakdown in talks over a new licensing agreement.
While on a smaller scale, record producer Pete Waterman bitterly complained about the tiny amount of money he’d made from Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up, given a new lease of life and millions of page views thanks to the Rickrolling phenomenon.
PRS & YouTube Fall Out
PRS for Music, a U.K. specific organization which collects royalties for labels and artists, fell out with YouTube in March 2009. While in the process of renegotiating a licensing deal, YouTube suddenly removed all music videos covered by PRS off the site.
The reasons given were that PRS was demanding too much money and refusing to reveal which songs were actually covered. PRS for Music told a different story but suffice to say it was British Web users who ended up losing out.
PRS & YouTube Make Up
The issue has now been resolved, with MediaMemo reporting that Google and PRS had reached an agreement. Music videos will now be restored to YouTube and any new ones made since talks broke down will also be added.
However, it seems that rather than stick to the tried and tested pay-per-view agreement, YouTube has paid a lump sum to PRS which covers all music videos until June 2012. Neither side would reveal the amount of money agreed upon and all involved have reportedly had to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
Conclusions
This is good for British Web users who have been denied the right to watch music videos on YouTube for six months. However, we don’t actually know which side capitulated and decided this win-win situation was too good to lose.
