Radiohead, Billy Bragg join fray against YouTube
Update 6:30 p.m.: To include insight on from industry sources.
The fight between YouTube and a U.K. music royalties group appears to be heating up as Radiohead, Billy Bragg, and Robbie Williams have come out against YouTube.
Williams, KT Tunstall, and the members of the rock band Radiohead will meet Wednesday with other marquee music performers to protest "at how badly they are treated by record companies and music streaming Web sites like YouTube," according to a report in the Times Online, a U.K. publication. The artists will gather as part of a newly formed group called the Featured Artists Coalition.
YouTube announced Monday that the Web's largest video site and Britain's Performance Rights Society couldn't reach a deal on licensing fees and YouTube had stopped streaming music in the U.K. The PRS collects royalties on behalf of the music industry in that country. Music radio station Pandora has already fled the U.K. and MySpace reportedly may also pull out.
"Google, YouTube's owner, is a company that makes billions in profits," Bragg told the Web publication. "We think they should be paying artist royalties from the advertising revenue they make. 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."
But YouTube said in a response that the artists shouldn't have a beef with the video site.
"We absolutely agree that artists and writers should be paid from the advertising revenue earned from their content on YouTube," said YouTube in a statement. "That is precisely what we are offering the PRS."
Representatives from the music acts and the FAC were not immediately available for comment.
YouTube is not the only company that Bragg and Radiohead went after. MySpace and Nokia were also called out in the Times Online story.
"The music companies did a deal with Nokia recently," said Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien. "They could launch phones with access to all sorts of music. We think they all received advances from Nokia, but nobody is saying who got what--and we think some of that money should go to the artists."
My sources within the music sector say that the PRS is taking a hardline stance. Some U.K. label executives are quietly hoping that the PRS will make a deal.
One of the issues that may be facing YouTube, MySpace, Pandora and other services that stream songs over the Web is that recent studies have shown streaming is cannibalizing music sales, industry sources say. The labels have partnered with streaming services hoping that they would generate big advertising bucks and also promote sales.
That's not the way it has worked out and you can learn more in this story from Douglas MacMillan at BusinessWeek.
MacMillan wrote: "Researchers and industry consultants say online music sites are being used by a growing number of listeners as a substitute for purchasing music rather than serving as a catalyst for more purchases."
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET. 
I wish I was getting financially "abused" by record labels and YouTube in the same way Radio Head is.
Also, music on cell phones is going to be big, but not on phones from Nokia or RIM or anyone else. It's mostly going to be the iPhone that is going to have the biggest mobile sales, and I'm sure they already have a contract worked out with Apple.
Also, you can't just put out one or two or even 3 albums and then expect to have enough money to retire on. Most people have to keep working until they're pretty old, and there is no exception for musicians, even if you've lost the ability to make good music. So find a job.
I am a musician myself (guitar, bass, piano, and some percussion) and record my own music and am also working to put myself through college (computer science major). I would never want to make a living off of making music. I would always have other sources of income I'd rely on. The fact of the matter is that there isn't much money to be made selling music, and so these bands are running around trying to squeeze every penny out of every corporation that is involved with anything music related. But these companies aren't making any money off of the music anyways. So what do they do? They already tried suing your average Joe Shmoe for downloading music, and that didn't work out anywhere near as planned, and the PR was terrible. They're going to try forcing ISPs to regulate everything that is sent over the internet, but I have a feeling that won't work. So what's next?
In the mean time, I refuse to pay for music, and I would never charge for music that I create either.
It's a personal mp3 player thing now. You can get 20gigs of albums in a heartbeat from someone you just met with a mp3 player, folks share music like sticks of wrigley's gum. Income streams are drying up for musicians to the point the music is just for promotion now, especially if you are a band and can actually play instruments and hold the public interest, you might be able to play some cities based on a great cd being passed around like dunkin doughnuts. Nothing beats a good live band.
I can understand the smaller bands getting behind this. Youtube does make money off of copywritten material, its not like Youtube creates anything. Since most folks aren't going to go out and buy a song they discovered on youtube, gotta get the loot where you can. Especially these days, have you listened to the radio lately? Before you know it it will take just 1 finger and a mouse to make a complete album that will be considered a classic by today's listeners.
I was hoping you could explain more to me other than just telling me that there's something I don't know.
What gives with the flip flop?
Important to remember that if major artists didnt voice their opinion through the media and left it to developing acts, do you really think it would hit the headlines and get us arguing about it?
"These major artists are not looking to make a quick buck."
Yeah they are. They clearly see value in being on YouTube and since YouTube won't pay them what they demand and has pulled their videos, they're now trying to put pressure on by whining to the press.
"Billy Bragg and Radiohead are artists with integrity and are representing their colleagues and future artists."
Billy Bragg is shameless. He wrote an op-ed in the NY-Times about how artists that put their music on Bebo were entitled to some of the 850 million AOL payed to acquire Bebo because they voluntarily put their music up on Bebo.
If I give away a CD, I have no right demand a cut when the person I gave it to sells it.
There is no integrity there, it's all about making buck, deserved or not.
"They ar 100% correct to demand royalties from Google (owners of YouTube) for every play of official material."
Google offered them a share of ad revenue, they demanded more, and Google declined and pulled their videos. A free market deal if there ever was one. Now the artists are whining how unfair it was.
I work 3 jobs! Start at 3.30 in the morning finish at 7.30 at night just to make ends meet!
GET A BLOODY GRIP ON REALITY YOU BUNCH OF WHINING OVERPAID MUPPETS!
If all I had to do all bloody day, was sing a song, and then moan, I didn't get paid more & more, I would gladly swap!
As for the PRS! They are the ********* who wanted to charge £249! to have a radio playing when 5 of us are sorting newspapers at 4 in the morning! Hence we aren't aloud to have a radio on anymore!!
Radiohead could have a problem because they set a precedent by going against the Prince takedown request but I'm not lawyer so who knows.
1. Featured Artists Coalition: various groups of artists are forming their own consortia to negotiate for the artists. This means the hold of the RIAA, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC is weakening because they over represent the interests of the labels and not the artists.
2. Transparency in accounting. The elephant in the room of the music business has been opaque accounting making it nearly impossible for the artists and others to know precisely what the are owed. THERE IS NO LONGER ANY EXCUSE FOR THIS GIVEN MODERN WEB-BASED TECHNOLOGY. Yes, I am shouting that.
For new artists, this all looks good except they have to lower their expectations for earnings given reductions in mechanical royalties. For established artists used to those big checks, it is like dancing on a flag pole during an earthquake. For the labels and producers, it is mass panic.
There are artists who have mastered the web instead of the web mastering them. Check out Arlo Guthrie's web sites and the Guthrie Center. Note the smoothness of that operation, the fact that he leased his early recordings back and distributes them himself. Note that his wife Jackie handles YouTube. He understood early what the web meant and what he had to do. There is a noticeable pattern of inverse scale. The artists that are scaling down the size of the operations and scaling up the use of web distribution are doing well. Those trying to maintain the caste system of the old labels are not.
Expect more artist consortia. That is a smart move and precisely the way the software industry handles it's own internal market squabble over IP and legislation.
- by c5ny March 11, 2009 12:03 PM PDT
- This is about principle not about money for these musicians! what is wrong with you people?! you are obviously clueless AND you must not be an artist of any sort trying to make a living! These well established musicians are trying to pave the way so perhaps your sorry kid who wishes to be a musician doesn't get shafted by the industry. They don't need to do this, they could simply not care what happens to everyone else and live happily ever after.
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- by unknown unknown March 11, 2009 12:38 PM PDT
- I really hope that is sarcasm and you don't actually believe that idiocy.
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- by dadsgravy March 11, 2009 1:48 PM PDT
- "I really hope that is sarcasm and you don't actually believe that idiocy."
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(19 Comments)That's a lot of cynicism and lack of faith in humanity. You want to get a piece of pie and talk about it?