After the mid-June backlash of YouTube threatening to pull major indie acts such as Arctic Monkeys and Adele from its platform, the world’s largest video hosting site has now agreed to reconsider its harsh policies.
The threats arose once YouTube announced plans for a new music streaming service, stirring up a debate in which the host site and several indie labels could not agree on royalty terms, deals for the new paid subscription service or the existing terms that accompany its free service.
With the the news that indie trade group IMPALA filed a formal complaint with the European Commission against YouTube, according to the Financial Times, YouTube is “back-flipping and backtracking.”
Perhaps indie labels’ greatest fear was having advertisements removed from their music videos, one of the number one sources of income, if they denied YouTube’s new terms. Also unsettling were terms that seemed to favor major labels, in particular, a “most-favored nation” clause that would permit YouTube to curtail its pay to indie labels as long as major labels also agreed to lowered pay rates.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Source: Billboard
