WMG Re-Ups With YouTube
Record companies have long railed against safe harbor laws and YouTube’s comparatively low royalty payments. Variety cites a report released last month from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which singles out YouTube and other user-upload video streaming services as a major deterrent to the music industry’s recent growth. Based on the IFPI’s “conservative estimate,” some 900 million people use such services and pay around $553 million to rights holders in revenue. By contrast, the much smaller base of 212 million users of licensed audio subscription services (both paid and ad-supported) such as Spotify and Apple Music paid more than $3.9 billion.
In September 2006, Warner became the first major music company to sign a licensing deal with YouTube. Warner’s chief executive at the time, Lyor Cohen, was named YouTube’s Global Head of Music in September 2016.