Indie labels and YouTube have reached a licensing deal. YouTube has been dealing specifically with Merlin, an organization that represents thousands of small record labels around the world. This is in the wake of YouTube trying to start its own subscription feature similar to music streaming services like Spotify, which is under fire recently, mainly because of Taylor Swift pulling her music.
YouTube reached a deal with the major record companies Sony, Universal, and Warner a while ago, but it’s the indie records that have been negotiating with YouTube claiming the deals offered to them were far less compared to the major companies.
Neither side is commenting on the deal, and YouTube hasn’t said much about the streaming service either. Experts speculate a paid subscription will allow you to have high-quality audio and possibly save videos offline. It wouldn’t be too crazy to assume it will be linked with Google Play Music All Access somehow as well. At the very least, we hope that the Indie labels will be compensated fairly.
Tell us what you think about YouTube starting a pay service? Do you think its other services will suffer? Will this be enough to pull people away from Spotify?
Check out this article on a lawyer who just couldn’t keep music out of her life.
