Google taking music down to avoid Publishing

Not sure how many will be interested or are prs members but thought paste this mail i got as they said to spread the word. Im not sure how it would work with Google paying for every clip played on youtube anyway as surley you could put your own tune up and just get everyone clicking??

Dear Member

We recently wrote to you to tell you about the Fair Play for Creators campaign.
Fair Play for Creators has been established by PRS for Music so that its songwriter and composer members, along with other creators, can publicly demonstrate their concern over the way their work is treated by online businesses.

Fair Play for Creators is an online forum set up after Internet-giant Google made the decision to remove some music content from YouTube in the UK. Google made this decision because it didn’t want to pay the going rate for music, to the creators of that music, when it is used on YouTube.

Google continue to say they cannot operate YouTube if they have to pay a royalty – however small – every time a video containing music is played. In 2007, the UK’s independent Copyright Tribunal established that a minimum royalty per play was an essential requirement in the licensing of online services. Google fails to recognise this and ascribes little value to music - in spite of a huge increase in music usage on YouTube’s UK service in the past year alone.

We are pleased to report that there has been a good deal of media coverage about the Fair Play For Creators campaign including an article in The Times today. High profile supporters have also published a letter in The Times newspaper, to further raise awareness of the issues.
Click here to view the letter published in The Times today.
Click here to view the article published in The Times today.

We are also delighted that many music industry organisations are also supporting the campaign. The Musician’s Union and the Featured Artists’ Coalition are the latest to throw their weight behind us, joining BASCA, the MPA, PCAM and UK Music.

As we write this, we have also just learnt that Google has begun similar action in Germany; blocking user access to premium content on the German YouTube service because it won’t pay the going rate for music to our colleagues at the German collecting society, GEMA.

Please add your support to the campaign by leaving a comment at www.fairplayforcreators.com.

Here you can also read more about the latest developments, read industry statements, link to media coverage and read the latest supporter comments.
Do help us highlight this issue by forwarding this email to fellow music creators or others who may wish to pledge their support.
We look forward to hearing from you.

Fair Play for Creators – One voice together, we can be heard

Fair Play for Creators is an online forum set up after Internet-giant Google made the decision to remove some music content from YouTube in the UK. Google made this decision because it didn’t want to pay the going rate for music, to the creators of that music, when it is used on YouTube.

Google continue to say they cannot operate YouTube if they have to pay a royalty – however small – every time a video containing music is played.

Not wanting to make an argument of it, but that's certainly not what was being said at the time. If I recall, Google had been paying a small amount, but had been given new demands (by the PRS? Or someone else...) which they claimed meant they would be making a loss on each video.

I don't claim that Google are somehow the victims here, they were making money off of it no doubt, but to claim they were refusing to pay any kind of royalty at all seems to me to be, well, a flat out lie.

And let's face it, this shit about "paying the going rate to the creators of the music" is shite, because the creators have no decision on what exactly the 'going rate' is, and certainly wouldn't get the lion's share of any youtube-related profits under anyone's system.

from what i understood of what happened, google/youtube have been paying royalties to labels/PRS type organisations which is why you see things like the latest britney spears music video on there

google were re-negotiating a deal for the uk or something and PRS asked for more than google could afford so now all music videos like that aren't accessible from youtube if you're in the UK.

since google were hosting the videos for free in the first place you can hardly blame them imo. if they don't think its in their financial interest to host them so that other people can make money of their PRS then why should they?

this is only in the UK afaik btw

this is only in the UK afaik btw

also in germany for the same reason.

this is only in the UK afaik btw

also in germany for the same reason.

yep!

this is only in the UK afaik btw

also in germany for the same reason.

yep!

It's worse in Germany as the GEMA (the equivalent to the PRS) want much more money than the PRS! (I think 300% more)