Andre Yoskowitz
2 Apr 2009 11:00
As of yesterday, Google is no longer allowing German users of their popular YouTube platform to watch any official music videos, as negotiations over licensing has fallen apart.
The negotiations were between YouTube and Germany's music royalty organization GEMA, who appear to be on very opposite sides of the spectrum, and the German people will now suffer. Google says they would rather block all the official music videos rather than pay GEMA's "huge" proposed royalty rate.
On March 10th, a similar situation occurred in the UK, where Google began blocking music videos to UK residents, as negotiations fell apart there as well.
Google spokesman Hennig Dorstewitz says that GEMA wants a completely ridiculous $0.16 USD every time a German user plays a song on YouTube. In comparison, imeem recently said it was struggling to pay its $0.01 per stream royalty fees.
GEMA CEO Harald Heker contradicts that assertion however, saying the group offered YouTube a temporary rate of $0.013 per song but Google declined. Google's previous deal with GEMA was set at $0.004 per stream.
"They are essentially asking us to lose money with every video playback," added YouTube spokesman Chris Dale.
"We can't pursue unsustainable economic practices, especially in this business environment. Until we can get rates sustainable for our business, we can't afford to keep (premium music video service in Germany) up."