Elavi speaks out on YouTube ban

PR Log (Press Release) – Mar 12, 2009 – On Monday YouTube announced that it would be banning many of the music videos available in the UK provided by the major American record companies. The move came after talks with the PRS (performing rights society) had broken down. YouTube which is owned  by the internet giant Google said that Google would be losing money on each play if they were to pay the rates that the PRS was demanding.

Elavi, who is no stranger to controversy, was shocked by the move as it is the PRS job to collect on the behalf of the artist. I feel the most important part of the whole process is to make sure the artists are paid for their work when it is played on YouTube.

It is clear that neither party are going to divulge the amounts of money that was talked about, but YouTube is massive in terms of users and part of this is due to the content. It seems crazy to me that it will be these same users that suffer along side the artists.
The artist needs to be paid but could both parties not create some free content also, I am sure the revenue could be recouped from advertising from increased usage  

The news came after YouTube had rumoured that it was set to take on MTV in the music stakes by striking deals with the music provider.

Elavi went on to say that it is not clear how long this dispute will continue and in fact it could even spread to MySpace TV, but for now we as UK artists must think about the users and what they have lost and try to fill the gap as much as possible by creating content for the fans and users who are like me, music hungry.