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Digital
UGC YouTube vids paying increasing amounts into music biz
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 15 April 2011
According to Billboard, between a third and a half of the licensing money paid by YouTube to music companies comes from unofficial videos that sync other people’s music, rather than the actual video put out by the artist or label. And in some cases the unofficial videos using any one track can be generating much more money than the proper pop promo, despite the ad rates being less when an advert appears next to unofficial user-generated content.
They quote YouTube’s music partnerships man Glen Brown as saying: “So far the conversation is about official music videos, but we’re seeing that user videos are becoming just as interesting in terms of both views and financials”.
Of course sometimes labels demand such unofficial videos be removed from YouTube, though some insiders say this is usually more because an artist doesn’t like the way their music has been used, rather than because of any policy on the labels’ part who recognise that, while they earn less when their music is experienced via an unofficial video (because ad rates are less), they are still earning money.
Labels earn when their music is used in such videos via YouTube’s ContentID system, which is also used by content owners who want their content automatically removed from the web platform. Says Brown: “Content ID is often described as a blocking tool but in the vast majority of cases it’s a monetization tool. It’s the thing that’s made UGC blow up into this brand new business line”.
YouTube, of course, would like fair use provisions in copyright law altered so that neither labels nor artists would have the right to veto their music being used in UGC videos where the creator gets no commercial gain and the label and publisher is paid a royalty for the use of their music.
Elsewhere in YouTube news, the web firm has published a crazy little video all about copyright, which any user issued with a copyright violation notification by the web company (based on complaints by content owners presumably) will be forced to watch, apparently. You can watch it here, even if you’ve not been filed with a copyright violation notice.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=InzDjH1-9Ns
