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YouTube To Block Music Videos In the UK

Posted by timothy on from the music-videos-in-the-uk dept.

ChunKing writes "YouTube is to block all premium music videos to UK users after failing to reach a new licensing agreement with the Performing Rights Society. For many of us in the UK this is great news. The two main music licensing agencies in the UK — Phonographic Performance Limited and PRS — have a stranglehold on music use in this country and are stifling creativity."

4 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Their own fault by ledow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Record industry (or their representative in some manner) gets stroppy, demands multiples of the usual licensing fee.
    Google tells them to get stuff (made $7bn last year by NOT caving in to people like you)
    Record industry up in arms, tries to gather sympathy
    Everybody else in the UK goes on Youtube to look for the latest Rhianna, finds it's still online, it's just certain "official" and HD versions that you're missing, and carries on as normal (or, at worst, moves to a better video place if they REALLY want high-quality music videos).
    Google carries on making $7bn a year
    Record industry misses out on a share of Google's IMMENSE revenues.
    Artists revolt and put their work on Youtube themselves.

    Seriously, is it just me or is the record industry TRYING to commit commercial suicide?

    1. Re:Their own fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      YouTube became a big player in the sense that they got the attention but did not have any liquidity worth suing for. The question back then was why someone with enough resources to be an interesting litigation target would buy something so obviously in muddy legal waters. The "user generated content" defense was bandied about back then, but clearly that's not what it's about. You can still make your own videos and use music that is royalty free (CC, PD, DIY).

  2. Re:If not in youtube then in some other site... by Samurai+Tony · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't know if you have watched recently but MTV no longer shows music videos, it is full of My Super Sweet 16 and The Osbournes/Run's House or whatever celebrity they can dig up from decades past.

    --
    ...oh, and yo momma's so fat, her Schwarzchild radius is visible to the naked eye.
  3. Re:"Great news?" by slim · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You're joking. It's bad enough the UK makes you "rent" your television set, but now you have a license on radio too???

    Actually I support the TV license. Most people get more value back for that than they get in return - not only BBC TV, but also its web content, radio, podcasts etc.

    The PRS radio-in-the-workplace thing is another matter. They consider that if a customer hears music coming from a radio (or CD player, whatever) that it counts as a 'public performance'.

    The insulting thing with radio in particular is that they've already been paid for the content by the broadcaster.

    Looking on the bright side, PRS is doing what it's meant to do: lobbying for those it represents; copyright holders. It's government's job to slap them down when they ask too much.

    And back on topic: it's Google's right as their customer to say "no thanks, the price is too high, come back when you're cheaper".