Posted inNews

Danish music returning to YouTube due to Polaris licensing deal

Danish collecting society Koda has been at loggerheads with YouTube since late July, when it claimed that the video service was preparing to “remove all Danish music from YouTube” after the expiry of a licensing deal.

The issue was a disagreement over the payment terms offered to temporarily extend the deal until a new agreement covering the whole Nordic region was ready.

Koda said YouTube had reduced payments by almost 70% in the bridging deal, while YouTube retorted by saying that simply reflected the performance of Koda members’ music on its platform – i.e. that the previous deal had overpaid.

Posted inNews

YouTube responds to Koda over Danish music takedowns

Earlier this week, we wrote about a controversy brewing Denmark with a dispute between collecting society Koda and YouTube.

Koda announced that YouTube would be removing its members music from its platform, after the society declined a temporary extension to its licensing deal (while a new one is being negotiated by pan-Nordic hub Polaris) that it claimed would “reduce the payment provided to composers and songwriters for YouTube’s use of music by almost 70%”.

Now YouTube has offered Music Ally its side of the story, saying that despite making good progress with Polaris, it has yet to finalise a deal. YouTube also says that the short-term agreement to cover interim licensing for Koda reflects the performance of the society’s members’ music over recent times.

Posted inNews

YouTube under fire over music licensing impasse in Denmark

Something is kicking off in the state of Denmark, and it’s the latest music licensing controversy around YouTube.

Danish collecting society Koda issued a press release last week titled ‘Google removes all Danish music from YouTube’, although the first paragraph makes it clear that this removal hasn’t happened yet.

The background is negotiations for a new deal between YouTube and collecting societies in Norway, Finland and Denmark, operating jointly through their Polaris licensing hub to replace their existing individual deals. Koda’s expired in April, but the society says it was temporarily extended while the new Nordic deal was being thrashed out.

Posted inNews

Danish court rules that stream-ripping is illegal

Given the growth of the recorded-music market overall, it’s hard to make apocalyptic predictions about how specific forms of piracy will damage the industry.

Not that rightsholders haven’t been tempted to do that with ‘stream-ripping’, with several reports and industry-body announcements proclaiming that tools for turning YouTube streams into downloads are the new menace.

The industry has had some success in getting players like YouTube-MP3 shut down, which may also have contributed to the lack of a widespread panic about stream-ripping’s impact. Anyway, for people who are worried, there was some more good news this week, from Denmark.

Posted inNews

Warner Music on how Christopher topped the charts in China (#midem)

How many Danish pop stars have topped the charts in China? One of them was at the Midem conference today, as artist Christopher was joined by his manager and key execs from Warner Music Group to explain his Chinese success.

The group included Beth Appleton, SVP of global marketing at WMG; manager Thomas Børresen; Jonas Siljemark, president Nordics at WMG; and Simon Robson, president Asia at WMG. The moderator was CMU’s Chris Cooke.