In the news today was a report about YouTube pulling the plug on Music videos watchable through their service. This will ony apparently effect those accessing youtube from the UK!

The reason? Google (owners of Youtube) charge the record companies a fee to allow them to post their music videos on Youtube. After all, the record companies are getting promotional space on youtube by uploading the music videos for anyone to watch.

However Google and the record companies can't agree on what the fee should be, so Google have just pulled the videos until they do as a kind of scare tactic and sticking two fingers up at the record companies involved.

This however is going to effect smaller groups a lot compared to the large corporate record label promoted singers and groups. The small independant groups rely on free promotional avenues such as Youtube and Myspace to get their work out there and listened to, to sell MP3s and CDs to their fanbase. If they have to start paying for the services to host their videos they are going to suffer badly as they won't have the budget to do it and they will go unheard and unknown. Not good at all!

As usual it is the greed of the large corporations now monopolising the internet, and the large record companies monopolising the record industry. Neither of which are really a good thing.
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Which record companies have had their videos removed? Surely it can't be every music video in existance as the purpose of a music video isn't necesseraly to be for promotion.

I think Google do right to charge companies to use their services for promotion (perhaps not smaller companies, but the big ones at least).

I don't think Y0uTube etc being a monopoly is entirely their own fault. It is the fault of the masses of people that choose to use it, probably based on the fact that someone else they know uses it, or they have seen videos on it before.

It is quite possible also that Google could loose out if the big record companies start to use Y0uTube extensivly. They may benefit from advertising revenue whern individuals upload and watch videos, but when big companies start using it alot this will require Google to provide a lot more resources, of which the advertising revenue from the record company's pages may not be enough.

It also does mean that the record companies are taking advantage of someone elses services if they are not paying (enough) for it.

Can the record companies not host their own videos? Surely they make enough money from the sale of MP3s to be able to do this.
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The whole point is that Youtube is a single location where people know that can normally find most videos in streaming form. If they had to go back to the days of searching for a site for each record company or artist to view each video then it fragments and makes the internet take a step backwards.

Bringing all similar content together into a single global network is a great idea. However everyone has to agree to work together and not just take advantage. Which I think the record companies have been doing until now on Youtube. However just pulling the music videos from the UK version seems a little strange.
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Uk gets ****ed as per usual! Youtube is a good thing, google seem to be the new micro$haft and as for the music industry they can go **** themselves. I don't understand what all this is about except as per ****ing usual it's about bastard money!

Maybe it's about using the UK to test if they can stop America a much bigger market i really don't know or care the death of the internet is nigh!
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It's not just UK, it affects us as well. Perhaps all of Europe. As you know, across the pond UK, EU and Europe are all the same thing.

I never used youtube much for music videos anyway, but this is still ridiculous. As you say, it harms the wrong people. It's like standing in front of the school bully and trying to threaten him to give you money by beating up smaller kids in front of him. Great tactic.
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