UK Music Industry Takes On Youtube Over European Copyright Laws

UK Music, the industry funded body representing the interests of the recorded, published and live arms of the UK music industry are currently in dispute with global tech giant and video streaming platform YouTube over the EU Parliament’s movement to reform copyright law across the continent.

The reform in question – better known as the European Copyright Directive – and in particular, ‘Article 13’, in essence will make YouTube legally liable for all content uploaded by its users.

As a consequence, YouTube would need to filter this user-uploaded content for copyright-infringing elements before making it available on its service.

YouTube also claims that Article 13 will be a disaster for its platform, for music makers and for music fans, whereas UK Music on the other hand is claiming that the plans give “everyone in the music industry a fairer deal.”

Statistically speaking, the facts published by UK Music on royalties paid out by the Google-owned monster firm are pretty shocking, stating that YouTube pays creators a tiny £0.00054p per stream of music (which per 1 million streams equates to £540 for the artist, compared to the £4,290 per 1 million from Spotify).

Even taking in that figure, there is a clear need for change in the industry.

UK Music stated:

“Many tech companies are fully licensed and have systems for managing content on the internet. But there are legal loopholes that undermine the rights of creators and those that invest in them. We need to close the loopholes and make the internet work for everyone.

“According to figures from the International Federation of the Phonographic industry (IFPI), audio streaming platforms attracted 272 million users in total in 2017, while 1.3 billion music-using users turned to online video services like YouTube.

“Despite having one-fifth of users, audio streaming platforms pay substantially more for the use of music. These services paid around $5.6bn (£4.3bn or £15 per user per year) which contrasts significantly with the $856m (£650m or just 50p per user per year) returned to the industry by the likes of YouTube.

“The legislation proposed in the European Parliament would create a level playing field in the online market. If you#LoveMusic, please continue to support this change.”

We concur! Sign their petition here.

The legislation proposed in the European Parliament would create a level playing field in the online market. If you#LoveMusic, please continue to support this change.

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