YouTube and Warner Music Group confirmed a deal Tuesday that brings the music label's artists back to Google's video-sharing site.
The multiyear global agreement, which also
includes Warner's publishing arm Warner Chapel, gives people an option to discover, watch and share Warner's artists on YouTube, according to a YouTube spokesperson in San Bruno, Calif.
The
partnership is based on sharing revenue generated from ads that run on the site, clicks and videos. YouTube sells advertising displayed inside or alongside the music videos. Ads are either based on
CPM or CPC, and pay a revenue share from advertising into the partner's Google AdSense account monthly. It is similar to AdSense, but instead of bloggers, YouTube has content creators.
Warner
also has the option to monetize user-generated videos through Content ID, a technology available on YouTube that allows copyright owners to claim and monetize user-generated videos uploaded to YouTube
by fans of Warner Music recording artists. Reference files help copyright owners find the content. They can either block, track engagement or monetize the content.
Music labels have argued that
social networking and video sites should pay artists a licensing fee for music or videos. But music videos still generate a small amount of revenue compared with other advertising opportunities.
Warner Music pulled the music from YouTube in December 2008, after the two companies could not come to terms on a deal that made sense. "The door always remained open," he says. "The negotiations
have been ongoing, and over the course of several months an agreement was hammered out that would be good for the artists, the label, the community and YouTube."
Warner Music's return to YouTube
gives the site boasting rights to all four of the major music labels and publishers, along with hundreds of indie labels and publishers available on the video platform. Artists include Madonna, Green
Day, Metallica and Rob Thomas.