Speculation surrounds Warner Music Group's decision to pull its music videos from YouTube after a breakdown in licensing negotiations between the two companies. Here's WMG's statement on the situation: “We are working actively to find a resolution with YouTube that would enable the return of our artists’ content to the site. Until then, we simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide.” And here's YouTube's: “Despite our constant efforts, it isn’t always possible to maintain these innovative agreements. Sometimes, if we can’t reach acceptable business terms, we must part ways with successful partners. For example, you may notice videos that contain music owned by Warner Music Group being blocked from the site…” The news comes at a sensitive time for YouTube, when it's renegotiating its deals with several labels, and trying to convince them its business model can be a lucrative earner for the music industry. That said, at least one other major label seems pretty happy – last week UMG said it was earning “tens of millions of dollars” from YouTube.But some context to the fallout between WMG and YouTube may be provided by this [...]
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