Warner Music and YouTube in New Music Video Deal
We recently wrote about the possibility of YouTube starting movie rentals. They were in deals with leading produces like the Warner Bros. Now, the Warner Music Group, a subsidiary of Warner Bros and YouTube have reached a agreement allowing music videos from artists to once again feature on the music website. The news article from Reuters is here.
Warner Music has stars such as Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Green Day under its banner, and that would mean legal promotion of their videos via YouTube. This settles a long standing dispute over licensing rights between the two companies since December. Warner is one of many music companies that are in such deals with YouTube like Sony Music, EMI and Universal.
Warner was initially one of the first companies to get into a deal with YouTube. The exact financial details of the new deal are unclear. The deal allows for the creation of a new type of advertising platform. Warner will be allowed to create its own specific channels on YouTube and sell advertising around them. The major advertising revenue from the shares is expected to go to the music publisher.
Warner will also make money from ads placed with user-generated snippets that incorporate music to which the studio holds copyrights. YouTube users will benefit by getting access to material from Warner recording artists and songwriters. “This sets us up for a sustainable partnership going forward,” said Chris Maxcy, head of music partnerships at YouTube, during acall with reporters. Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman is quite focused on his desire to improve Warner’s image in digital media while he competes not just with rivals like Universal (who currently have the most popular channel on YouTube – as acclaimed by several sources) but also piracy, tumbling CD sales and slowing digital music growth.
The new deal will also allow Warner to inch into Vevo, a new platform for music which is expected to be the leading music video service in a few years. Launched by Universal Music, with Sony as promoters, and Google as tech support, it is expected to be a premium version of YouTube with higher advertising rates. It is expected to be the Music Video version of Hulu, the popular TV website in the USA.
What about the India aspect? As far as I can see, there isn’t any. We aren’t really that focused on music videos as a nation, at least not for local artists, and I haven’t heard remote rumours about similar deals. But then again, music in India is dominated by Bollywood, whose music is intended more as promotion for the movie and less for the video or the listening value.
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