This is great news for the online video community: WMG (Warner Music) is back on YouTube !
This week, WMG and YouTube struck a deal that will give WMG a large chunk of the revenue created around their videos - which was the issue when they broke the deal in December 2008 . The partnership covers the full Warner catalogue and includes user-generated content containing WMG acts.
This is great news for anyone wanting to publish video on YouTube and use music by artists under contract with WMG: over are the times of heavy WMG policing and removing of audio tracks that were deemed "infringing". This is also very relevant to ad producers since WMG music is now implicitly licensed for publication on YouTube.
The deal gives WMG special rights: it will sell advertising around its videos on YouTube itself rather than leaving it to YouTube. YouTube will get a share. To that end, WMG will be given a special high-quality video player by YouTube with advertising capabilities that are not available on the standard player. WMG can thus clutter the video with a lot more advertising. I wonder what that will mean for embedding the music videos on other sites?
Also, YouTube's Content ID technology will allow them to claim and monetise the audio tracks of UCG content. I wonder what effect that will have on the videos - will there be an overlay with a link through to iTunes or Amazon for purchasing the records? That might be the least intrusive. Or will there be large banners of WMG advertisers around them? Not sure how that is going to pan out, but we will certainly experience it.
It is said that it will take until the end of the year for all WMG music videos to return to YouTube , which includes the time it takes YouTube to implement the premium video player and the time to upload the videos in the high quality format.
However, UCG doesn't have to wait any longer - go and enjoy the new-found freedom to use WMG music again on YouTube!