YouTube has started removing all premium music videos available on the website to UK users after failing to reach a deal with the Performing Rights Society (PRS), the society that represents music publishers in the UK.
Media and Music solicitor Adam Greenup comments.
Anyone who wants to stream music videos online has to have a separate deal with music publishers covering royalties due to the copyright owners of music and lyrics. In the UK, the PRS acts as a collecting society on behalf of its 60,000 member publishers.
YouTube previously paid a licence fee to PRS to cover the streaming of music videos from its members, which include three of the four major music labels and many independent labels. But now YouTube is claiming that PRS is seeking a rise in rates such that YouTube will lose money every time a user plays a music video.
PRS, on the other hand, says it is acting on behalf of songwriters and trying to secure a better deal for them. As technology moves on, music publishers and the songwriters themselves increasingly rely on websites such as YouTube to get their music heard by as wide an audience as possible
. PRS also claims that the rates they are seeking are in line with a recent court ruling on digital streaming rates.
Whilst talks are continuing between the two parties and hopes remain for a reasonable compromise, there are fears that similar disputes will arise in relation to other websites – it is reported that negotiations between PRS and MySpace are currently in a deadlock over the rates MySpace will pay in relation to its new music service which will stream full albums in the UK.
On a more general level, the dispute highlights the changes that the music industry is going through and the problems that are being caused in trying to accommodate the old music model against the backdrop of the ever-changing digital revolution. The traditional set-up needs to adapt to embrace new technologies and, ultimately, new streams of revenue for music labels, artists and songwriters. Record and publishing deals increasingly focus on digital content and any party looking to enter into such an agreement needs to understand fully the importance of securing appropriate and commercially acceptable rights.
If you would like advice on your rights in relation to digital content or any other aspect of the music industry, please contact Adam Greenup at
agreenup@steeleslaw.co.uk
or 020 7421 1720.