YouTube unveiled Music Key, which is an upgrade of the free site and features new content available only for those that paid a fee. Naturally, it has already run into a problem. Irving Azoff spearheading Global Music Rights, a music publisher that represents the performing rights of songs (online or radio) for the songwriters, has asked YouTube to take down almost 20,000 songs.
Howard King, a lawyer for Global Music Rights wrote a letter on Monday “demanding the immediate cessation from public performance of almost 20,000 songs.” The songs and creators are not listed, but Global Music has deals with over 40 writers including major songwriters like Bruno Mar and Pharrell Williams.
King goes on to writer, “Obviously, if YouTube contends that it has properly licensed any of the songs for public broadcast, a contention we believe to be untrue, demand is hereby made that we be furnished with documentation of such licenses.”
There is no official lawsuit yet, but there could be, and it could get up to over a billion dollars. No one can say for sure if it will come to that yet or not.
YouTube admitted to receiving the letters but did not abide to the request. In a statement YouTube said, “We’ve done deals with labels, publishers, collection societies and more to bring artists’ music into YouTube Music Key. To achieve our goal of enabling this service’s features on all the music on YouTube, we’ll keep working with both the music community and with the music fans invited to our beta phase.”
What do you think of this development? Many streaming services seem to be under attack lately. Do you think these charges are justified? Let us know in the comments below.
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