James Delahunty
3 Sep 2009 10:50
After a dispute that arose over royalties early this year, YouTube began blocking music videos to users in the UK. Google, YouTube's parent company, had at that point failed to agree a fee with RPS for Music (formerly The Performing Rights Society) in the region, resulting in the action taken in March 2009 to block viewers access to some music tracks.
However, YouTube has agreed a deal reportedly in the "ten of millions" of pounds with PRS for Music that will last until 2012, meaning the music content will return to the site and be accessible in the UK. It will take a number of days before all of the deleted videos and audio tracks can be returned to normal.
"We are pleased to announce that an agreement for a license has been reached and both PRS for Music and YouTube are happy that the negotiations resulted in a mutually acceptable deal," YouTube said in a statement. "As a result of the new agreement, premium music videos in the UK are coming back to YouTube - this is good for songwriters and composers, music fans and YouTube."
PRS for Music collects licensing fees in the country for over 60,000 members. "We have 60,000 song-writer and composer members and many of them don't earn very much money at all - 90 percent of them earn less then 5,000 pounds a year," Adam Shaw from PRS for Music, said.