Warner Opens Video Library To YouTube

Oxen writes, "From the article, 'Warner Music has agreed to make its library of music videos available to YouTube, marking the first time that an established record company has agreed to make its content library available to the user-generated media company. Under the agreement, YouTube users will have full access to videos from Warner artists. They will also be permitted to incorporate material from those videos into their own clips, which are then uploaded to YouTube. Warner and YouTube will share advertising revenue sold in connection with the video content.' This is in contrast to how Universal is handling the situation."

Comments

Initiative

[eldavojohn]

So this must be part of their every music video ever initiative?

Under the agreement, YouTube users will have full access to videos from Warner artists.

Wait, you mean you can put this media out there online for free and you can still turn a profit? That's insane. That goes against everything I've ever been told by the RIAA & MPAA.

I'm very happy and excited about this. I hope that this turns out to be a lucrative move for Warner and, more importantly, the artists. Sites like Youtube combined with this relatively new kind of business model could represent an alternative for distributing writing, songs & video. It's nice to see a company adapt to the fans instead of forcing it vice versa through thousands of lawsuits.

This is in contrast to how Universal is handling the situation.

Uh, yeah, Universal isn't interested in Youtube or MySpace distributing their content ... but at least they're going to put it online anyway.

Um, aren't music videos just adverts for the band?

[Colin Smith]

In which case I'd expect them to be very keen for youtube to distribute them.

They will remove offensive video clips.

[crazyjeremy]

Ahh yes, I can just see all the videos now that the 16 year old video nuts recut Madonna videos and make her do things offensive.

It will also allow YouTube to remove user-generated clips based on Warner material that the company deems offensive.

Madonna would NEVER do anything offensive.

Huzzah, a media company that gets it

[99luftballon]

This could be a major step change in the way media companies handle the internet. Holding onto copyright and soaking consumers each time the formats change has been lucrative for a while now but it's as obsolete a business model as buying caned food and then using the shop's can opener to get at it before taking the cans home. After failing to produce a DRM system that works, failing to stop the tide of piracy with law suits and faced with falling sales Warner is making the smart move and getting what money it can. More power to their elbow.

This is a huge crack in the dike!

[postbigbang]

It's almost like a Creative Commons license with a catch. For Warner to agree to this will cause the rest of the media robber barrons to either follow suit or have their catalogs decimated by compared lack of popularity.

It's not a perfect deal. But it's a huge start. Bravo to the brains that figured this one out. It's a huge first step.

Re:Yup..

[Orange Crush]

I wonder what MTV would say if studio asked for an enomorous amount of money to be able to show their videos, instead of throwing it at MTV to get more air time.

MTV shows videos!?