U.K. Artists Enter Fray in Dispute Over YouTube Music Videos

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 11, 2009 - 10:25am.

London - The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), a group of musicians aiming to garner more of a say in industry contracts that includes Billy Bragg, Robbie Williams, KT Tunstall and Radiohead, has come out against Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube in a dispute over licensing fees paid for music videos that recently saw YouTube pull most music videos from its U.K. site, the Times Online reported.

"Google, YouTube's owner is a company that makes billions in profits; we think they should be paying artist royalties from the advertising revenue they make," Billy Bragg told Times Online.

"A dispute like this illustrates the needs for the creation of the Featured Artists Coalition, so we have a voice and the public understand that sites like Google should be paying for music."

Google has balked at the fees demanded by PRS for Music, the U.K. society that collects royalties, and in a drastic step decided to block music videos on its U.K. site.

"We absolutely agree that artists and writers should be paid from the advertising revenue earned from their content on YouTube. That is precisely what we are offering the PRS," YouTube said in a statement posted by CNET.

YouTube and PRS for Music are apparently still in negotiations on licensing terms for music videos.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/dm8mj (Times Online)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10193215-93.html

http://snipurl.com/dm8od (DMW previous coverage)