Post on 24-Aug-2020
transcript
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INSIGHTS HAVE SOME CMU
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in the beginning there was…
YOUTUBE + MUSIC – A VERY BRIEF HISTORY…
and it was good!
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YOUTUBE + MUSIC – A VERY BRIEF HISTORY…
We were told…
everybody is a creator! And it’s all about…
user-generated content
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YOUTUBE + MUSIC – A VERY BRIEF HISTORY…
But it turned out…
everybody is a curator! And it was more about…
user-stolen content
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YOUTUBE + MUSIC – A VERY BRIEF HISTORY…
! The music industry saw a flood of its songs and recordings being uploaded to YouTube, both in the form of music videos that had been ripped off TV and as soundtracks to other content.
! Though at the same time, labels recognised YouTube was a user-friendly browser-based fully-embeddable video platform via which they could distribute their own promotional videos at no cost.
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! But nevertheless – it was clear YouTube was building a mass audience and a massive business in no small part with unlicensed content, claiming safe harbour protection to its critics in the music rights sector.
YOUTUBE + MUSIC – A VERY BRIEF HISTORY…
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! What do do? Ignore, license or sue…
! Most music rights owners ultimately licensed YouTube, the majors taking equity pre the Google acquisition.
YOUTUBE + MUSIC – A VERY BRIEF HISTORY…
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! YouTube began to hone its rights management system Content-ID, allowing rights owners to monitor and monetise their songs and recordings on the YouTube platform.
! Meanwhile YouTube allowed certain rights owners to control some of the advertising inventory around their videos – eg Vevo and Warner Music controlled channels.
YOUTUBE + MUSIC – A VERY BRIEF HISTORY…
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! YouTube started to generate ad revenues for rights owners.
! At the same time, YouTube became both a significant music marketing and a significant music consumption channel.
YOUTUBE + MUSIC – A VERY BRIEF HISTORY…
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! So, music was increasingly being both marketed and consumed in the same place – even more so as the digital music market began to shift from downloads to streams.
YOUTUBE + MUSIC – A VERY BRIEF HISTORY…
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! This might make sense. Except compared to the monies generated by premium subscription-based streaming services, the ad revenues of free services are relatively modest.
! And if the marketing channel is competing with more lucrative consumption channels, that’s a problem.
YOUTUBE + MUSIC – A VERY BRIEF HISTORY…
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! So the music industry started to fall out with YouTube.
! Which has fueled the safe harbours debate – because the music industry feels its negotiating hand is weakened by copyright law.
YOUTUBE + MUSIC – A VERY BRIEF HISTORY…
• .
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! Meanwhile YouTube has tried to placate rights owners by moving into paid-for content itself – “we can now upsell to our own premium service that will generate you more money”.
! This was originally going to be a standalone music service, but morphed into the platform-wide YouTube Red.
YOUTUBE + MUSIC – A VERY BRIEF HISTORY…
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YOUTUBE + MUSIC – TODAY…
“SAFE HARBOURS” “SAFE HARBOURS” “SAFE HARBOURS”
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YOUTUBE + MUSIC – TODAY…
“THE BIG BAD VALUE GAP”
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YOUTUBE + MUSIC – TODAY…
“FUCKING YOUTUBE”
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MAKING MONEY ON YOUTUBE: CONTENT PARTNERS
! You’d be forgiven for thinking that YouTube paid no money into the music industry – but that’s not true.
! Any creator or rights owner can monetise their content on YouTube by becoming a content partner.
! There are different levels of content partnership…
! Monetise your own uploads.
! Monetise user-generated content that uses your music.
! Sell your own advertising.
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MAKING MONEY ON YOUTUBE: OPTIONS FOR ARTISTS
! Artists can distribute their music on YouTube…
! Directly by managing their own channel.
! Through a distributor or MCN that manages their channel.
! Through a label that manages their channel.
! Through Vevo which manages their channel.
! Or some combination thereof.
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MAKING MONEY ON YOUTUBE: ADVERTISING OPTIONS
! The creator and/or rights owner controls what kind of advertising can appear alongside their content.
! This will impact on the amount and value of the advertising that appears – and therefore potential ad revenues.
! The creator and/or rights owners is on a revenue share with YouTube – majority of income goes to creator/rights owner (55% to creator a common starting point).
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MAKING MONEY ON YOUTUBE: PUBLISHING RIGHTS
! Music partners uploading recordings don’t necessarily control the accompanying song rights.
! Even if an artist performs their own songs, a publisher may control ‘mechanical/sync rights’, a collecting society will likely control the ‘performing rights’ – both are exploited in a stream.
! YouTube has licences with the the bigger publishers and most song right collecting societies and pays royalties on monetised songs – how this is distributed to creators is subject to publishing contracts and/or society rules.
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SO WHY THE CONTROVERSY?
! Ad-funded services generally generate much less revenue per user than paid-for services.
! So a minority of music fans generate the majority of the income – while the majority basically get a free ride.
! It was always so – in the olden days the majority got their music for free on radio, the minority bought records.
! But in the streaming age, the free and the premium products are very similar – are they too similar?
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SO WHY THE CONTROVERSY?
! Can we sell advertising at a higher rate? Can advertisers make their ads more effective? Is there enough advertising to go round?
! With audio services, labels and publishers generally demand per-stream and/or per-user minimum payments.
! YouTube generally only pays when there is revenue to share.
! Which brings us back to safe harbours – and a disagreement over YouTube’s liabilities, the music industry thinks YouTube is exploiting safe harbours never intended for this kind of service, and this weakens the music industry’s negotiating hand.
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BEYOND SAFE HARBOURS
! Even if US and European Union amended safe harbours – what would the revised law look like? What would it achieve?
! Is there a commercial reason for YouTube to evolve in line with the music industry’s grand plan?
! The big challenge – YouTube is not the same as Spotify, even if it does compete – YouTube is many things to many people…
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WHAT IS YOUTUBE?
a streaming service
a promotional platform
a publishing platform
a media platform
a non-commercial
licensing platform
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OPPORTUNITIES
! For new talent, focused on direct-to-fan, live and brand deals, YouTube makes total sense – at the outset at least.
! For more traditional artists – and heritage talent – possibly less so, “YouTube is the new radio” doesn’t really work.
! But are their under-tapped opportunities on YouTube?
! And what about the other emerging video platforms?
! And what about the YouTubers?
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BECAUSE…
Meanwhile, back on YouTube…
some people are creators! So it is all about…
user-generated content
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MEET THE YOUTUBERS
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MEET THE YOUTUBERS
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