A lot of people are using YouTube for listening to their favourite bands, finding new and interesting music or to watch covers of their favourite songs to learn how to play them. If YouTube will take these videos down, then they will die a slow but certain death.
This is from an article I found on the internet:
"If you missed the headlines, Warner Music Group (WMG), the first of the Big 4 record labels to partner with YouTube has pulled off the site. Accounts and press releases differ over culpability – whether YouTube bailed or Warner Music punted – but the material fact is the same. From Bad Company to the B-52’s, James Blunt to Jane’s Addiction, the videos are down. The reason is simple: money.
For several months, the two companies have been trying to renegotiate their expired license agreement. Under the prior terms, it's reported that Warner received either a fraction of a cent per video play or a share of any ad revenue generated alongside their content, whichever was greater.
Neither, it turns out, was great enough. According to the New York Times, in 2008 less than one percent of Warner’s $639m in digital revenues came from YouTube; that despite the fact that music videos are among the most watched content on the site.
According to Ad Age “Forty-seven of the top 100 most-watched creators on YouTube are musicians or labels.”
In a blog post, Google (GOOG) announced the split saying that “despite our constant efforts, it isn’t always possible to maintain these innovative agreements. Sometimes, if we can’t reach acceptable business terms, we must part ways with successful partners.”
WMG countered that they are still looking for a solution but “until [one is found] we simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate our artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide.”
To some extent, the dispute is a case study in the challenges facing the young online video marketplace.
On one side, there is YouTube. Explosive in audience growth, the site has become the fourth largest website and the second largest search engine in the world. In November, according to Nielsen, they served 5.56 billion video clips out of about 9.5 billion watched in the U.S. That’s equal to nearly sixty percent of the U.S. market.
On the other side lie the content owners. It is on their backs, that YouTube has grown. These licensors know a distribution platform is no good without desirable content. They want to be recognized and compensated for the contribution.
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You can read the full article here
There are a lot more articles about this, just google it and you will find some interesting stuff to read.
This post has been edited by code1: 19 January 2009 - 04:22 AM
