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A comment on YouTube to block indie labels who don't sign up to new music service. Parent comment

Re:YouTube to block indie labels who don't sign up to new mu... by fpgeek on Tuesday June 17, 2014 @03:21PM (#7906407)
That sounds like a fundamental disagreement about how much video-wrapped audio streaming is worth (with Google saying enough people will pay to avoid the extra overhead/complexity and the labels thinking that people will walk many miles to save a few bucks). That sounds like a plausible place for negotiations to break down.

I suspect Google is right today (at least for the many people who care about mobile music, since the data and/or storage costs would be prohibitive now), but I can also see how a label might not want to set too generous a precedent for tomorrow (on the assumption that bandwidth and storage might become abundant enough sooner than they're comfortable with).

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:YouTube to block indie labels who don't sign up to new mu... by peroo on Wednesday June 18, 2014 @06:18AM (#7909300)
A lot of people are already using YouTube as a free streaming service, and even though artist can monetize their music, the payout is significantly lower than from pure music streaming services. This is seen as a fair tradeoff seeing as YouTube is also a great promotional channel, but Google are now trying to pivot it into a pure streaming service without significantly changing payouts.

It sets a very dangerous precedent for the value of music, which can be incredibly damaging for already struggling indie artists (not so much for the three majors who have received _massive_ advances)

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