YouTube ends record label standoff, now has licensing deals with the “Big 3”

After years of arduous negotiations, YouTube has finally landed licensing deals with the 3 biggest record labels in the biz: Universal, Sony, and Warner. Warner signed with them back in May, and ...

After years of arduous negotiations, YouTube has finally landed licensing deals with the 3 biggest record labels in the biz: Universal, Sony, and Warner.

YouTube ends record label standoff, now has licensing deals with the “Big 3”

Warner signed with them back in May, and yesterday the godfather of streaming closed the loop and signed “multi-year agreements” with Sony and Universal.

The holy trinity

Notorious for paying lower rates than subscription-based services like Spotify and iTunes, YouTube has been at odds with studios and artists for some time.

Over the years they’ve been criticized for stiffing rights holders and letting users post copyrighted works without permission and punishment.

But, after reportedly making millions less in ad-revenue than their subscription-based competitors last year, the Tech giant realized they needed to start playing ball.

With these new deals, YouTube will pay creators better rates for content and commit to “stronger policing” of user-uploaded content.

Just in time for their new subscription service

While close to 25% of music streams globally from YouTube, they’ve struggled to get consumers to pay for it over the years — cuz why buy the cow when you can get a Sia video for free?

But, their plan to launch a new music subscription service in March of 2018, could mean that the tides are turning, and position the service as a dangerous contender to the defending subscription champions.

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