YouTube hissy fit over as the music returns online

Davey Winder
Thursday, 03 September 2009 15:47

Your IT - Home IT

Six months ago YouTube pulled down tens of thousands of premium music videos from the UK site following a disagreement over royalty payments with PRS for Music. Today, the music returns.

You might think that a company as big as the Google-owned YouTube could conclude a series of licensing negotiations without doing the corporate equivalent of running away shouting 'it's my ball and you cannot kick it' but no, that's exactly what happened earlier in the year.

It really was back in March 2009 that iTWire reported how YouTube could not come to an agreement with PRS for Music, which represents some 60,000 composers, publishers and songwriters in the UK, over royalty payments.

Back then, Patrick Walker, the Director of Video Partnerships, Europe, Middle East and Africa for YouTube insisted "We value the creativity of musicians and songwriters and have worked hard with rights-holders to generate significant online revenue for them and to respect copyright. But PRS is now asking us to pay many, many times more for our licence than before."

So it pulled thousands of music videos from the site, preventing UK-based YouTube users from being able to access 'premium' music content and basically told the music industry it wasn't going to play ball with them.

At the time, PRS for Music insisted that "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."

Thankfully, it would appear the stand-off is over and the two parties have finally realised that, actually, it is in the best financial interests of neither of them to continue acting like children.

What are the details of the deal and when will the premium music return to YouTube in the UK?

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