Warner Music takes videos off YouTube

Warner Music announced Monday that it will begin removing online music videos from YouTube after discussion about a renewal of the companies' licensing agreement failed to produce a new deal. The talks fell apart after Warner requested more money per stream than Google's video sharing site cared to pay in royalties.

Videos from popular Warner Music acts like Madonna have begun to be taken off the site gradually, though the takedown has not been completed. Who knows if this is a negotiating tool or simply a lengthy process that Warner wanted to do top-down.

"We simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide," Warner Music said in a statement provided to Reuters.

Music videos consistently rank in the most popular online videos on YouTube, where they are free for consumption by the site's gigantic audience. The value of this exposure is not easily determined, but it's clearly a great discovery tool and promotion machine for album releases.

It will be interesting which side (site) blinks first, but the clear winners here are the other major music labels, whose music videos still sit on YouTube while Warner's do not. 

For more:
- see the Businessweek.com article here

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