YouTube blocks music videos in UK

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 10 Mar 2009 at 08:25

YouTube has announced that it will begin blocking access to thousands of "premium music videos" in the UK over the next few days after royalty talks fell through.

Speaking on its blog, YouTube claimed the Performing Right Society (PRS) for Music, which collects royalties on behalf of three of the four major music labels, had made a deal untenable by drastically increasing the amount it was asking.

"There are two obstacles in these negotiations: prohibitive licensing fees and lack of transparency," says Patrick Walker, YouTube's director of partnerships in Europe. "PRS is now asking us to pay many, many times more for our licence than before. The costs are simply prohibitive for us - under PRS's proposed terms we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback."

Walker also claims the PRS was unwilling to tell YouTube what songs would be covered by the new licensing deal - a situation he described as "like asking a consumer to buy an unmarked CD without knowing what musicians are on it."

However, muddying the waters even further spokespeople for the PRS claim the videos were yanked from YouTube without provocation.

"This action has been taken without any consultation with PRS for Music and in the middle of negotiations between the two parties," says Steve Porter, head of the PRS.

"PRS for Music has not requested Google to do this and urges it to reconsider their decision as a matter of urgency."

Porter called himself "shocked and outraged" at the decision, pointing out that Google saw its revenue grow to $5.7 billion in the last quarter.

The two companies say they will continue negotiations.

The isn't the first time yanking videos from the site has been used as a negotiating tactic. Warner pursued a similar course in December, after licensing talks with YouTube fell through.