Copyright Law) is important to YouTube’s current model, because it grants “safe harbor” to digital service providers under specific circumstances. However, as the number of paying subscribers grows, along with streaming revenue, the ad-based remuneration is proving to be insufficient for the industry at large. 6 In the past, ad-based revenue was more feasible than a flat rate per stream.

5In that same time, Spotify (which has a higher number of paid subscribers) reported paying between $0.006 to $0.0084 per-stream. This would actually mean YouTube/Vevo’s pay per-stream rate decreased from $0.0020 to $0.0010 for that year. According to Forbes, research conducted by MIDiA indicated that between 20, total views increased 132%, whereas rights payments only increased 11%.

4 Now that streaming, and YouTube in particular, have become such strong market drivers, their role in compensating artists is more important than ever hence the increasing dissatisfaction from the industry. According to the IFPI’s Music Consumer Insight Report, 82% of those 1 billion users are listening to music. With an average of over 1 billion users per month, YouTube is the most-used streaming service in the world. 2 Industry mogul and manager Irving Azoff, a Billboard most powerful personality of 2012, remarked on YouTube’s “unfair advantage”. Trent Reznor, Music Chief Creative Officer for Apple Music and ex Nine Inch Nails, argued that You Tube’s business model, owned by Google, was served on a gratis platter “built on the backs of free, stolen content”. 1 Behind it, stood key trade players, notably the three major labels and the PROs, i.e. The open letter ran as a three-day ad in the Politico, Roll Call, and The Hill.

In June, a diverse group of 180+ major artists, including Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift, released a petition calling for a reform of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which grants safe harbor provisions to the video service. Music industry pressure is mounting on YouTube. Guest post by Michael Kostaras from Berklee's Music Business Journal.

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