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Warner may be close to renewing deal with YouTube
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 28 September 2009
Word has it that the Warner Music Group has settled its long running dispute with YouTube, meaning videos of music released by the major should be returning to the Google-owned video site.
As much previously reported, Warner ordered that all of its content be removed from YouTube at the end of last year after the company – despite having been the first music major to do a deal with the video platform back in the day – failed to renew is licensing arrangement, seemingly because of a dispute on rates. The squabble led to a serious cut in the amount of music videos available via YouTube, and hindered the video site’s claim to be the internet’s one-stop video jukebox.
As everyone commented at the time when contract talks between YouTube and Warner failed, a long term impasse was in neither company’s interest. YouTube lost that one-stop video jukebox claim, while Warner lost a revenue stream that, while maybe not as big as they would like, is nevertheless important to increasingly digital dependent record companies.
That a Warner/YouTube deal has finally been done is, I think, as yet, speculation, though AdAge cite two unnamed executives as claiming an announcement is imminent. The mag also says Warner is getting close to signing up to Universal’s new music video service Vevo.
