YouTube, Warner Team Up

YouTube has begun its quest to offer users the opportunity to watch every music video ever made by teaming up with Warner Music Group, which will distribute its library of clips through the video-sharing site. Warner will allow YouTube users access to clips from their entire roster, as well as behind-the-scenes footage, artist interviews, and original programming. In addition, YouTube users will be able to incorporate Warner’s content into their own videos, and the music company’s artists will get royalties each time their material is used.”Partnering with Warner Music Group is one of the most significant milestones for our company and our community, and shifts the paradigm in this new media movement,” Chad Hurley, CEO and Co-Founder of YouTube, said in a statement. “By providing a new distribution opportunity, we are paving the way for media companies to harness the vast financial potential of user-generated content on YouTube.”

While YouTube users will be able to access the content for free, Warner plans to utilize YouTube’s soon-to-be-launched advanced content identification and royalty reporting system to make the relationship financially beneficial. With the new site architecture, media companies will be able to identify their content on the site, authorize their works within user-generated content, and use a tracking system for royalties. Both YouTube and the company using their system will share revenue from advertising on both the label’s music videos and user uploaded videos that incorporate audio and video works from the label’s catalog.

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