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Radiohead, Robbie Williams and Others Unite Against YouTube

by Peter Mychalcewycz on March 11, 2009 at 08:07 PM



Some of the most popular musicians in the UK have decided to collectively protest what they see as poor treatment both from online music streaming sites (YouTube, MySpace, etc) and from the record companies that do business with them, according to CNET. Essentially, the artists have joined to create the most creatively inspired group of lobbyists, ever.

The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) is comprised of, among others, Radiohead, KT Tunstall and Robbie Williams, and was organized by Billy Bragg. Tomorrow will be the coalition's inaugural meeting, and the artists involved are hoping it will result in greater profits for them (they sometimes receive no compensation whatsoever from streamed music) and in a better understanding of how contracts should be structured in an increasingly digitally-dominated era.

The conference, set to take place today at a secret location in London's West End, comes days after YouTube blocked music videos from streaming in the UK. Prior to the decision, YouTube had been in negotiations with Britain's Performance Rights Society (PRS), which collects royalties for the UK's music industry, but found their demands unpalatable. Pandora has already pulled out of the country due to what they view as prohibitive compensation demands, and MySpace is expected to follow suit. The PRS maintains that their demands are fair, considering the massive amount of ad revenue that streaming music generates for Google (who owns YouTube) and other popular sites.

As for the artists themselves, they are primarily interested in the digital music deals between record companies and online sites. These deals are often struck on confidential terms and are difficult for the musicians to understand. Simply put, the musicians want to know where their music is being streamed, and why they are not being paid for it. Sounds reasonable to us. [From: CNET]

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Tags: billy bragg, BillyBragg, digital downloads, DigitalDownloads, kt tunstall, KtTunstall, music, music industry, MusicIndustry, myspace, pandora, performance rights society, PerformanceRightsSociety, radiohead, robbie williams, RobbieWilliams, royalties, youtube

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