Muziic is a streaming music service which is rapidly growing in popularity. And it works by streaming music videos directly from YouTube. Having been up for a year, I assume it must be legal, yet I can’t see the record labels being very fond of it.
YouTube Music Videos
has a long and volatile relationship with the big four record labels.
There was a huge falling out when it came time to renegotiate licensing agreements for music videos. Since the first time agreements had been made, YouTube had grown a fair bit, and was starting to bring in revenue, and the record labels wanted a slice of the money pie.
In the end, as a compromise effort, Vevo was born. Vevo is all about music videos, using the popularity of this genre to drive traffic and bring in revenue which is fairly split with the labels who essentially own the artists in question.
Muziic
, in case you haven’t heard of it, is a media player and website which, like Vevo, is focused on music videos. But unlike Vevo, it doesn’t have official agreements in place with the music industry, instead relying on YouTube’s.
Essentially, Muziic works by providing access to the catalog of music videos and videos containing audio of well-known tracks without the user having to actually visit YouTube and do the searching. Yes, it’s for lazy people.
There is a Web player and desktop player, as well as Facebook, iPhone, and iPad apps. There is also an entertaining Muziic DJ tool which lets users try mixing and matching two songs together.
Record Labels’ Reaction
The record labels don’t appear to have yet kicked up a fuss about Muziic, probably because the site has managed to squeeze into that small patch of gray area between legal and illegal.
However, as the site grows, and more people start to use the service, there’s always the threat that the music industry will at least try and limit Muziic’s ability to provide access to music videos.
Conclusions
Muziic recently hit the 250 million streams milestone, and it’s set to continue to grow as word of mouth spreads. What could cut its life short is if the music industry decided to act against it, but it appears that as long as Muziic abides by YouTube’s API rules, it’s safe.
