YouTube May Resume Streaming Videos in the UK

The British music royalties collecting society PRS has unveiled a new pricing scheme that it hopes will bring back services like YouTube and Pandora to the UK market. The new pricing will come in effect on July 1, 2009. A streamed track will now cost 0.085p, down from the previous 0.22p, which comes after pressure from some sites to drop the rates they considered prohibitive.

YouTube started to block official music videos from being streamed in the UK in March after it failed to renew a licensing agreement with the PRS. Pandora, the popular internet radio service, made a similar move earlier in 2008. It looks like the PRS is starting to listen to the websites and has reduced the rates. "We believe these new streaming rates will stimulate growth in the digital music market and will benefit our licensees and our members," said Andrew Shaw managing director of broadcast and online at the PRS for Music.

The PRS is a not-for-profit organization that collected £117 million in the first three months of 2009. The reduced rates are accompanied however by an increase in the percentage of the advertising or other revenues that the services have, from 8 percent to 10.5 percent. "The Copyright Tribunal established the principle of a per stream minimum to protect creators; maintaining this principle will ensure that writers, composers and music publishers continue to be rewarded every time their music is enjoyed," he added. "As new entrants join the market and existing providers expand, music creators will reap the rewards by sharing in the success that their talent is generating. This is a good deal for music creators and for music lovers."

YouTube commented on the move but has not made any official announcements of a new licensing agreement. "We welcome any efforts to make licensing costs more realistic, but as we're still in discussions with the PRS to agree license terms for YouTube we're unable to comment further."