YouTube negotiates with PRS: Meeting was "positive"

By Nate Lanxon on 11 March 2009, 9:35am

After Google and the UK Performing Rights Society (PRS) recently wrestled over music-video licence fees, like two monkeys fighting over the last piece of faeces to hurl at a passing music fan, they sat down yesterday like civilised businesses and had a little chat. And according to the PRS, "the meeting was positive."

"We are committed to ensuring our 60,000 songwriter and composer members receive a fair deal," the PRS said in a statement following the meeting, "and that UK consumers continue to enjoy music videos on YouTube."

YouTube has agreements to host official music videos from bands and artists, and it pays for the licence to do so. When recently discussing a renewal of that licence with the PRS, which collects music royalties from bars, clubs and businesses such as YouTube, the PRS apparently demanded massively increased royalties.

"PRS is now asking us to pay many, many times more for our licence than before," YouTube said on its official blog. "The costs are simply prohibitive for us." So UK users kissed goodbye to many popular and mainstream videos uploaded by labels themselves.

But it seems this recent meeting could rectify this. The two companies will meet again in the next few days to further discuss the licensing. Hopefully they'll tag this utterly ridiculous story as 'demented', give it a one-star rating and issue a take-down notice to expunge it from the pages of history's most backward steps.