Last week, Indian music company Saregama announced a deal to make its catalogue available for use on YouTube Shorts globally.
However, some context for that agreement has since emerged, with a report claiming that Saregama has also pulled that catalogue from Facebook and Instagram, after failing to agree a renewal of its licensing deal with Meta.
This is according to news site Entrackr, which paraphrased a source as claiming that “Meta couldn’t accept Saregama’s terms for renewing the deal”. Neither company has yet commented, but Entrackr also noted that the tracks appeared to have been removed from Meta’s platforms when it searched for them.
The news will inevitably fuel speculation about what kind of terms YouTube is offering music rightsholders in its Shorts licensing deals, and how that might be affecting their expectations from rivals.
Rightsholders will naturally see this as a textbook example of a competitive market working its magic, but expect some bumps (not least for fans and artists) if it means entire catalogues falling off one platform or another amid the haggling.
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