Mark Cuban posts details of the Google/YouTube deal with the major labels via an email from an anonymous digital media veteran.
Techdirt breaks it down:
• The deal was an investment, not a licensing agreement, meaning all that cash the labels got they don't actually need to share with the artists they always claim they're trying to protect. This was done on purpose.
• While Google and YouTube have apparently put $500 million in escrow to deal with copyright lawsuits from smaller players, handing over cash to the labels came with a promise that the labels wouldn't sue YouTube for at least six months.
• At the same time, they would sue other players in the space -- which we've already seen from Universal Music.
Add it all up, and you get the music labels effectively taking a bribe to cause trouble for Google/YouTube video competitors, ignoring YouTube to let it grow for a while, and pocketing all of the money without giving it back to the artists they supposedly represent.
Yipes.
Advertisement
Comments
"...and pocketing all of the money without giving it back to the artists they supposedly represent."
Except labels don't represent artists, they market and sell products acquired from those artists. That's why artists have managers and lawyers who are not associated with the label--at least, that's the way it's supposed to work.
But this idea that it's an investment and not payment on royalties in bullshit and some big name artists with deep pockets should sue the shit out of the players here.