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YouTube Yanks Music Videos In The UK

Bruce Houghton — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:00:17 +0000

YouTube has pulled thousands of music videos off its UK web site in a dispute over rates and reporting with British collection society PRS. The take down could take several days, but gone will be videos from all four majors (WMG’s were pulled several weeks ago in an unrelated dispute) and most indies.

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In a statement, PRS cried foul. "Google has told us they are taking this step because they wish to pay significantly less than at present to the writers of the music on which their service relies, despite the massive increase in YouTube viewing. This action has been taken without any consultation with PRS for Music and in the middle of negotiations between the two parties."

But Google paints a very different picture. "PRS is now asking us to pay many, many times more for our license than before…we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback. In addition, PRS is unwilling to tell us what songs are included in the license they can provide so that we can identify those works…that’s like asking a consumer to buy an unmarked CD without knowing what musicians are on it." Negotiations are said to be continuing to resolve the dispute.

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Major Labels At Odds With Music 2.0 Companies

Bruce Houghton — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:18:45 +0000

DEVELOPING STORIES:

UPDATED: Over what should have been a slow pre-holiday weekend two stories broke that again put the major labels at odds with several major Music 2.0 companies. Here are links to our updated coverage:

Unable to get the revenue share is sought, Warner Music Group pulled all of its label and publishing content off YouTube. We have up to date details and a commentary. Earlier in the week Universal claimed it would make $100 million from online video in 2008.

All four major labels are in the middle of re-negotiations with Google owned YouTube who are warning them to expect small payouts.

At the request of several major labels and publishers MySpace pulled all Project Play list widgets from the site. Thus far, they remain up on Facebook.

The RIAA filed a lawsuit on behalf of its label members against Project Playlist in April claiming copyright infringement.

Sony BMG signed on with Project Playlist on Monday.

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Warner Music Group Offers Catalog To Wal-Mart.com

Bruce Houghton — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:34:12 +0000

The Warner Music Group family of labels has widened its full catalog mp3 offering to include WalMart.com. Previously Amazon was the only North American based download provider with the catalog.

Hypebot reported yesterday that WMG was about to broaden its DRM-free program to include other sites. Last month WalMart drop all tracks from WMG, Universal and Sony BMG and took its digital store DRM-free. EMI and a limited number of indies provided content until this morning when WMG effectively doubled WalMart.com’s catalog.

As it does at brick and morter, WalMart is…

competing on price with all tracks a 94 cents (up from 88 cents last month) and album downloads from $7.98 – $9.22. (By contrast iTunes generally prices at $.99 track/$9.99 album and Amazon’s offers variable pricing that is occasionally lower than WalMart but often hits $.99/$9.99.) Indie music plays only a minor role on WalMart.com also mimicing in-store content.

WMG’s move puts pressure on the other label groups and download stores to move more rapidly towards all DRM-free. At yesterday’s Digital NARM, a spokesperson for Napster hinted that they would go DRM-free within a month.

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