According to Reuters, Warner Music Group has ordered YouTube to pull
down all music videos by its artists, which could effect hundreds of
thousands of videos. The reason? Money (what else could it be?).
Apparently Warner aren't exactly impressed by the paltry return they're
getting from the video site, a site they believe they helped build when
they agreed to share their music video content before Google dropped
billions of dollars buying them out.
It
doesn't look like any Warner videos have been pulled down yet, so maybe
there's still hope for the arrangement. But you have to wonder why
Warner would expect a massive return from YouTube videos anyway... Is
there a single person who pays attention to ads around a YouTube music
video? I'd have thought it would be better to look at it as a way of
growing your band's exposure, rather than a revenue raiser. But of
course, I'm just a cynical tech blogger, not a representative from a
music label, so I'll just sit back and watch as many clips on YouTube today as I can in case tomorrow sees them all
disappear...
Artists you won't be able to watch include the likes of
AC/DC,
Gnarls Barkley, Bjork, The Cure, Death Cab for Cutie, Metallica, Muse, The Pixies, and to their great regret, Radiohead.
Nick Broughall