YouTube, No Software No Deals?

In September last year, Warner Music Group became the first major music label to agree YouTube.com could let users freely and legally incorporate Warner Music artists’ works into their uploaded videos. Part of that deal was the implementation, by YouTube.com, of “an advanced content identification and royalty reporting system” that YouTube.com was developing.

In a press release dated September, 2006, YouTube.com states that “By the end of the year, professional content creators, including record labels, TV networks and movie studios, will have the opportunity to authorize the use of their content within the YouTube community by taking advantage of YouTube’s new tools and architecture.”

In a Financial Times article, Mike McGuire, a digital media analyst at Gartner, said that the implementation of such a system would play a major role in YouTube.com’s ability to form better business relationships with traditional media. "The technology industry really has to start living up to the media industry's expectations," he said.

Despite YouTube.com being touted as testament to the success of consumer-generated content and a mecca for net surfers, iTWire cites a recent survey by Harris Interactive and Witeck-Combs Communications which seems to counter this view. They found that 69 percent of those surveyed didn’t use or visit YouTube.com. Furthermore, of those that did use the site just 2 percent used it for more than five hours a week.

Tags: music, piracy, Warner Music Group, YouTube