YouTube announces streaming service intentions, spells trouble for independent labels
As YouTube hastily prepares for the unveiling of its brand new music subscription service, several prominent indie label acts such as Adele, Arctic Monkey and Vampire Weekend, who compose around 10% of the music the site has rights to feature, may have their material pulled from the site due to contract disputes. The issue at hand, according to Billboard, is that YouTube and the record labels have failed to agree on royalty terms, deals for the new paid subscription service and the existing terms that accompany its free service.
The video streaming platform argues that it cannot offer music via its free service without it also being available to customers who pay for a subscription; thus, the most realistic solution is to remove content that cannot be accessible through both services.
A YouTube representative recently told Mashable, “Our goal is to continue making YouTube an amazing music experience, both as a global platform for fans and artists to connect, and as a revenue source for the music industry. We’re adding subscription-based features for music on YouTube with this in mind — to bring our music partners new revenue streams in addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars YouTube already generates for them each year. We are excited that hundreds of major and independent labels are already partnering with us.”
While the luxury of accessing an entire library of music on demand and through mobile phones without the hassle of ads sounds appealing, it seems as though YouTube’s new services still have some kinks to work out.
Categories: Music