AfterDawn: News

YouTube blocks music videos in Germany

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."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 2 Apr 2009 11:00

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• 15 comments

• pr0digy

  I can't wait till all these german users are outraged by this event. Hopefully there will be some sense knocked into GEMA.
  
  Hell, I still can't understand why they are making them pay money per time music video is played. If anything the label or artist should sell them the video and let them play it all they want. They are just trying to get paid from someone else's hard work. (like the guys who had the creativity to make youtube)

  2.4.2009 11:51 #1

• kikzm33z

  I hope other countries don't pay then we could start a worldwide YouTube boycott.

  2.4.2009 14:59 #2

• veyron

  Originally posted by kikzm33z: I hope other countries don't pay then we could start a worldwide YouTube boycott.Why? Youtube is right.
  It would be foolish to allow someone to essentially extort money from you.

  2.4.2009 16:26 #3

• windsong

  Well if GOOGLE is saying that the royalty fees are HUGE..then to the rest of us..that means "F'ing HUGE!. A LOT of money. It baffles me why the riaa (or whatever the german equivalent is) are STILL clinging to whatever residue exists on the old business model of doing things.
  
  That said, anyone see the news yesterday where a UK woman was hassled by the record companies for playing classical music to soothe her horses??
  
  Insanity.
  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopi...et-licence.html

  2.4.2009 16:39 #4

• gallagher

  The Internet has changed so much in so little time. Yes, many new features are wonderful with better apps and speed, and high quality media.
  
  But one thing is for sure. Innovation is going our the window. The same dull, big companies are trying to take over the Internet and do with it what they did with television and radio. They want to control it all. And the sad thing is that government is allowing it.
  
  It would have been one thing if these companies had created these sites initially and developed the technology. No, creative individuals did so. They found a new market and made it available to everyone.
  
  Now these scumbag companies are coming in and claiming what others made. And the law is allowing them. Copyrights, patents, trademarks, they all need to be reformed. If you aren't using it, someone else should be able to. Then you should not be able to come in and take over their work.

  2.4.2009 20:57 #5

• DXR88

  Dame you Rick Astley, its all your fault.
  
  i thought you were never gonna give me up, never gonna let me down, never gonna run around and Dessert me , never gonna make me cry, Never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt me.

  3.4.2009 14:37 #6

• pphoenix

  kikzm33z i think the youtube block is what they are aiming to achieve, courporations stating that huge fees are required for said thing, isn't this how they destroy the competition! i bet the few courporations that control the media are loving being able to dictate to youtube at last, leaving them "EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Group, Warner Group" in control of the distribution!
  
  
  the record companies continue the assault on everyone, from web streamers playing indie bands which now have to pay mandatory royalties to the riaa even if they are not affiliated with the riaa just to destroy the competition, to the artists themselves whome get paid a pitance and lose the rights to their own works.
  
  the few courporations that control 99% of the acts making it famous due to payola deals are acting like the proverbial little dutch boy with his figure in the dyke!

  4.4.2009 06:35 #7

• pphoenix

  Oh how they lie, BTW the BPI are: "EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Group, Warner Group"
  
  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/03/pop_copyright/
  
  Quote:Radiohead and chums demand copyright 'fair play'
  
  3rd April 2009
  
  
  The European Commission and European Parliament are debating proposals to extend the period of protection for sound recordings from 50 years to 95 years. The Featured Artists' Coalition (FAC) says that once 50 years have passed copyright should automatically transfer from record labels to artists.
  
  
  The FAC has formulated a set of policies on copyright and intellectual property that is different to that of more traditional music industry lobbying groups which have usually represented the rights of record labels rather than artists.
  
  
  "The digital revolution has swept away the old music business of the 1960s, and changed forever the relationship between artists and fans," said Rowntree. "For companies who made their living sitting between the two, these are increasingly hard times, but for music makers and music fans this should be a fantastic opportunity."
  
  
  
  A committee of the European Parliament last week reaffirmed its commitment to the extension of copyright protection in sound recordings to 95 years.
  
  "To ensure that performers fully enjoy the additional royalties deriving from copyright extension, the committee amended the original text so as to prevent the use of previous contractual agreements to deduct money from the additional royalties," it said.
  
  But another wing of EU government last week blocked the extension. The Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) of the Council of Ministers did not give the plan its backing.
  
  
  
  The FAC said that any extension of existing rights would act against the interests of artists and would only benefit record companies.
  
  "Record companies would simply gain another 45 years of ownership, entrenching the terms of record contracts signed in an analogue age," the FAC statement said.
  
  A group of recording industry bodies including the Musicians' Union and record label lobby group the British Phonographic Industries (BPI) said that they were unhappy with the vote.
  
  “The British music sector is very disappointed by the absence of agreement on an extension for performers and sound recording rights at the COREPER meeting today, and particularly that our own government, despite its recent positive statements, did not vote in favour of the proposal at this meeting," a joint statement said.
  

  4.4.2009 08:18 #8

• Mr-Movies

  So it seems that GEMA is every bit as bad as RIAA here in the US, not surprisingly I guess. I was looking at music from the 50’s Top/Hot 100 hits and trivia for my parents 50th and Billboard wants $300 annually which would allow me to browse their site. I found a couple of 50’s era CD’s and most cost around $17 each a few around $9, how ridicules for music that has been paid for many times over and is far from popular today. And they wonder why people pirate, these regulatory bodies have gotten way out of hand and need to be abolished.

  9.4.2009 08:53 #9

• six60six

  yet another reason why country-specific licensing should die. its a global network, so get with the show already!

  9.4.2009 14:44 #10

• Jemborg

  Damn, and I thought that music vids were commercials. Hahah. Don't get me wrong I know they can be creative...but advertisements nonetheless. Promotional material. LOL.
  

  Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

  12.4.2009 02:32 #11

• Hatley (unverified)

  16 CENTS?!?!?! OH NO! HOW COULD ANYBODY POSSIBLY PAY 16 BLOODY CENTS!?!?! THAT'S JUST UNTHINKABLE!

  7.11.2010 06:25 #12

• kikzm33z

  Originally posted by Hatley: 16 CENTS?!?!?! OH NO! HOW COULD ANYBODY POSSIBLY PAY 16 BLOODY CENTS!?!?! THAT'S JUST UNTHINKABLE! 1. This article is over a year old.
  2. You obviously haven't taken into consideration on how many people there are to pay $0.16 for.
  
  If they made this worldwide (not sure if they have) then that's a lot of money.
  Let's take Justin Faggotbieber as an example, I'm sure that he/she has over 300+ million views on his video or something like that.
  300,000,000 x 0.16 gives $48,000,000. And that's only one for one music video.
  

  7.11.2010 07:15 #13

• ddp

  Hatley, knock off the caps lock as is refered to as shouting which is a forum rule no no.
  

  7.11.2010 14:21 #14

• ps355528

  some asswipe is using my obsolete script.. time to drop a new captcha in kids.. because the old script was tested against your signup scripts.. in fact it was written deliberately to test this sites new account creation capabilities. ..
  
  spot the format?.. 4 letters and 3 numbers.. hahaha.. my new one is far more elegant.. a random string up to 8 characters.. only rule.. must have 2 lowercase letters in it somewhere.. but can be a random string of letters. They should follow the 2 letters and 6 numbers.. but it's not hard and fast if they run out of numbers before they manage a reply. As per I set up a test on a home exploited machine for test purposes.. not hiding anytihng with this account.
  
  D: if you see any of those other than this one (and you think it's one of mine) fire me a pm and I'll see why it is breaking it's host rules. This site is off my radar.
  

  
  
  irc://irc.villageirc.net/afterdawn

  9.11.2010 04:09 #15