After talk about record labels not being able to decide whether to love or loathe YouTube (they love the fact it's a free platform for distributing promotional videos, they loathe the fact fans keep uploading copyright material without their permission), the bosses of the video upload service are hoping to win over the music companies by officially licensing pretty much every music video ever made and making them available via what would be the uber online video jukebox. Quite how the whole thing will be funded (they are talking about making it a free-to-use service) we're not sure, but both EMI and Warner have confirmed to Reuters that they are negotiations with YouTube about the proposal. US TV network NBC has previously reached a deal with YouTube which has seen the site promote new NBC programmes to its subscribers - the TV company had previously had legal wranglings with YouTube when, like the record labels, they got pissed off about the amount of their content being uploaded unofficially.
Aug 16, 2006
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1 min read
YouTube planning major music video service
YouTube is in talks with EMI and Warner to license pretty much every music video ever made for a free-to-use service, while NBC has already reached a promotional deal with the site.