Apple, Spotify and YouTube add to the rush of streaming news

Apple Music has 6.5m paying subscribers, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Whilst that’s 200,000 more than Deezer’s total subscriber base (although around half of those are inactive), its a massive 13.5m behind Spotify’s official paying subs tally of 20m (and a total of 75M users). But its not all good news for Apple, after the three month trial period it seems around 40% of users have since left the service after their 'freebie' expired. Another 8.5m people are currently trying out Apple Music’s three-month taster, according to Cook.



It’s been two-and-a-half years since Spotify first brought its music-streaming service to Asia, and the company is moving close to entering two important markets in the region: Japan, where music streaming is beginning to show promise, and Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest country with a population of over 250 million.

YouTube, world’s biggest video site is readying a slate of programming that will only be available to people who join its upcoming subscription services. YouTube will announce some of that programming, which it is helping to fund, at an event at its studio/event space in Los Angeles next Wednesday, October 21. YouTube will continue to operate a free, ad-supported version of the site, and has said that all of the videos that appear on the free site will be available on the new paywall protected subscription service.

YouTube in the news

VentureBeat reports that YouTube was profitable off $3.5 billion in revenue generated in 2013. Google owns YouTube, but the company has never stated the streaming service’s revenue figures within its quarterly or annual earnings reports. The $3.5 billion figure is also from lower than many analysts’ predictions. For example, eMarketer estimated that YouTube would make $5.6 billion in ad revenue for 2013. 

And CMU Daily reports that The British Academy of Songwriters (BASCA) has issued a statement supporting independent labels in their fight against YouTube’s music service contract. YouTube told uncooperative indie labels that if an agreement might not be reached, their content would be taken down prompting outrage in the recorded music sector who referred the matter to the European Commission. statement BASCA included statements from various members of the organisation, including Texas frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri, who told reporters: "Songwriters fully support independent record labels in their fight to get better terms and deals from YouTube. It's about time we all made some noise about the way they negotiate with take-it-or-leave-it deals". Meanwhile both Spiteri and fellow BASCA member Barry Mason, who wrote Tom Jones hit 'Delilah' amongst many other songs, expressed concerns about the rates paid by streaming services in general, and the existing YouTube video site in particular. Spiteri continued: "It might be a little easier for writers like myself who also perform, but for those who do not and now have to rely on streaming income, the current rates are just not enough".

And finally with YouTube, a new YouTube channel called Music Vault has launched, featuring an archive of more than 13,000 live videos, including both single tracks and full performances, spanning the last 50 years. Run by the Wolfgang's Vault website, the footage on the channel is drawn from various sources including Bill Graham Presents and Daytrotter. Music Vault Content Editor Bill Antonucci said: "After two years restoring, transferring, mixing and mastering thousands of tapes from our enormous archive, we're thrilled and extremely proud to share this massive treasure with the YouTube audience".

YouTube says it will purge indie resistance

It seems that YouTube is going ahead with its threat to purge material owned by Indie labels who have refused to sign a new YouTube streaming agreement - and the labels will see content pulled "in a matter of days" - that's according  YouTube's Head Of Content And Business Operations, Robert Kyncl, in an interview with the FT.  The global grouping for indie label trade bodies, the World Independent Network and pan-European indie labels trade body IMPALA have already announced their intention to take the dispute to the European Commission, arguing that YouTube's moves are anti-competitive - they also requested that the EC implement emergency measures. But Kyncl told the FT that the deal being offered would see the indie labels paid "fairly and consistently with the industry", and that YouTube's payouts to the music industry would hit $2 billion "soon". Responding, WIN said that the terms on offer are in fact "highly unfavourable and non-negotiable" and "undervalue existing rates in the marketplace from partners such as Spotify and Deezer". Meanwhile Alison Wenham, who heads up both WIN and UK indie label group AIM, disputed the suggestion that there are only a few stragglers causing a fuss who wouldn't be noticed if they were gone. For one thing, those stragglers include labels like Beggars Group and Domino who between them represent some major artists saying that indie labels who had agreed to sign the new deal are "very much in the minority", adding: "Put simply, by refusing to engage with and listen to the concerns of the independent music sector YouTube is making a grave error of commercial judgment in misreading the market. We have tried and will continue to try to help YouTube understand just how important independent music is to any streaming service and why it should be valued accordingly".

YouTube payments top $1 billion - but is that enough?

YouTube has paid out over $1 billion to the music industry "over the last few years", Vice President of YouTube Content Tom Pickett announced during a panel at MIDEM. According to The Guardian, the BPI's Geoff Taylor, sitting on the same panel, suggested that YouTube should be looking into going the same route as its audio rivals, ie with a premium as well as freemium level. Said Taylor: "I think YouTube has lacked [a mix of free and premium tiers], and that has been a problem for the industry. When I looked at the billions of streams there were in music videos, and the pounds and pence coming in to the industry from that, it was a very small number".

And Media firm Tribune has completed  its $170 million acquisition of Gracenote from Sony Corporation of America - Gracenote is a key provider of music data.

BRITS to go live on YouTube

This year's BRIT Awards ceremony is to be broadcast live worldwide via YouTube for the first time on the BRITs YouTube channel. Viewers globally will also be able to influence the new Best British Video Award. A shortlist for that will be announced - with votes accepted via Twitter during the broadcast and the winner announced towards the end. The awards can be seen live on terrestrial TV  - ITV - in the UK - where the stream will not be active. Acts including Arctic Monkeys, Pharrell Williams Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Bastille, Rudimental, Ellie Goulding, Lorde and Disclosure are on the bill for the event, which will take place on 19 February, hosted by James Cordon for the fifth and final time this year at London's O2 Arena. Disclosure and Bastille lead the nominations for this year's awards, having both been named in four categories each.

YouTube Awards

Another day, another Awards show: The YouTube Music Awards are out with actor Jason Schwartzman and musician Reggie Watts presiding over the unscripted and unrehearsed "frenetic ceremony" with each winner presented with a gold-plated DMCA takedown notice which is faintly amusing. Who won? Well the six were:

Artist Of The Year: Eminem

Video Of The Year: Girls' Generation - I Got A Boy

YouTube Phenomenon: Walk Off The Earth +  KRNFX I Knew You Were Trouble

Innovation of the Year: DeStorm - See Me Standing

Response Of The Year: Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix - Radioactive

Breakthrough Of The Year: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Indie actress Greta Gerwig kicked off proceedings at the sprawling Pier 36 venue in New York, performing in a live video for Arcade Fire and their new song Afterlife and Lady Gaga performed her single Dope for the first time. The ceremony was streamed live.

YouTube Introduces subscription channels

Google’s YouTube video service has launched a platform of up to 50 paid for  a subscription services with content creators, which includes children’s programmers Sesame Street and Muppet creator The Jim Henson Co, PGA Digital Golf, Pets.TV, Comedy.TV, Cars.TV and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The service will be available initially in 10 countries and monthly subscription prices will start at 99 cents and channels will be able to set their own rates, many with annual discounts.  It is thought Google will keep about 45% of all revenues as its share. One pilot channel will be Acorn TV, offering up a 'Best of British' menu with programmes such as 'Midsomer Murders' and 'Pie in the Sky'  at $4.99 a month.

US courts take a close look at "safe harbor"

US District Judge Louis Stanton has stood by his original decision in the 2007 billion-dollar lawsuit brought by entertainment giant Viacom accusing Google-owned website YouTube of knowingly profiting from pirated video clips. The suit was dismissed in June 2010 by Judge Stanton on the grounds that YouTube was protected against Viacom's claims by 'safe harbor' provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Judge Stanton confirmed his original decision in the case after being instructed by the The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York to take another look saying "There is no evidence YouTube induced its users to submit infringing videos, provided users with detailed instructions about what content to upload or edited their content, prescreened submissions for quality, steered users to infringing videos or otherwise interacted with infringing users to a point where it might be said to have participated in their infringing activity."  Viacom have indicated a further appeal.

And in a case involving the controversial website Grooveshark, a New York state appeals court has held that the safe harbor defence found in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act does not apply to pre-1972 recordings. a panel of five judges in the New York State Supreme Court of Appeals found in favor of Universal Music Group (UMG) in its copyright suit against Grooveshark, reversing a lower state court decision favoring Escape Media Group Inc., the operators of Grooveshark. The case seems to conflict with the earlier but still recent decision  in Capitol Records v. MP3tunes, where the Manhattan Supreme Court found "no indication in the text of the DMCA that Congress intended to limit the reach of the safe harbors provided by the statute to just post-1972 recordings."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/18/entertainment-us-google-viacom-idUSBRE93H17S20130418

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-youtube-prevails-copyright-suit-viacom-20130418,0,5832848.story

YouTube tops 1 billion

YouTube now has a billion viewers a month, says the Google-owned video platform, up from 800 million monthly uniques in October 2011

YouTube launches subscription channels

Google owned YouTube is preparing to launch several premium video channels, charging subscribers up to $5 a month to access content. AdAge reports that the company is also considering charging for pay-per-view events, advice shows and content libraries. “We have long maintained that different content requires different types of payment models,” and a Google spokesman told AdAge. “The important thing is that, regardless of the model, our creators succeed on the platform. There are a lot of our content creators that think they would benefit from subscriptions, so we’re looking at that.”

Gangnam Style chalks up $8 million

As well as revealing that Google generated revenues of $50 billion last year, a financial update from the web giant yesterday also says that that Psy's 'Gangnam Style' has generated over $8 million in ad revenues via YouTube since going online last summer - although it's not clear how much of the $8 million went to the artist and his business partners. The video has been viewed 1.23 billion times to date.

Jay Z launches his YouTube channel

Jay Z is launching his own YouTube channel today (Oct 6th) by webcasting a live stream of his  performance in Brooklyn at New York’s Barclay Center, the last of eight sold-out concerts in a row. The hip hop superstar  created the channel in partnership with Iconic  based on his personal website Life & Times and confirmed orogramming includes: The Road to Brooklyn, a docu-drama series about the Nets basketball team (in which Jay Z has a financial share), Roc Nation CheckIn featuring video portraits of artists managed by Roc Nation (which Jay Z co-founded); Well Dunn with Jourdan Dunn, a series about the English supermodel previously named Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards; and Blueprint, a documentary series delving into the craftsmanship of world-famous luxury brands.

Music tops YouTube channel viewing

ComScore has eleased its first comScore YouTube Partner Report, putting some actual numbers to the popular streaming platform's successes. Machinima had 17.7 million viewers in August, which exceeds the average number who watch NBC's Sunday Night Football and the mostly under 35, male-skewing Machinima audience sticks around for a monthly average of 70 minutes per viewer. But it was music videos that reached the most people on YouTube. The Universal/Sony platform Vevo attracted the most viewers with 60.6 million and Warner Music clocked up 31 million, with average times of 60 minutes and 29.1 minutes respectively.