Music artists win copyright deal for YouTube backings

Published on Friday 31 August 2007 01:53

MUSIC artists from Cliff Richard to Amy Winehouse will be paid when their tracks are used as backing music for clips on the video-sharing website YouTube, it was announced yesterday.

The MCPS-PRS Alliance - a society that collects royalties for 50,000 composers, artists and publishers - said it has agreed to license over ten million works of music to YouTube for an undisclosed flat fee.

The agreement will compensate artists for income lost from declining CD sales, and also provide defence for YouTube against challenges by major media companies that the site is a haven for piracy of copyrighted works.

Andrew Shaw, the alliance's managing director for broadcast and online, said the deal would cover user upload and content.

Shaw said that YouTube was in a unique position among broadcasters as it did not have full awareness of content on its site and that it had agreed to explore and implement technology to search out music.

Similar interim agreements by music royalty societies have been reached in the US while they hash out complete deals, but this is believed to be the first full agreement.

Chad Hurley, YouTube CEO and co-founder, said the deal reflected the website's efforts to "explore new and creative ways to compensate music creators".