You Tube talks to record lables about music videos

YouTube talking to record labels on music videos | Entertainment | Industry | Reuters.com

Excerpts:

"YouTube Inc. said on Tuesday it is talking with record labels to post thousands of music videos online, aiming to move beyond being a site for sharing home videos to a provider of mainstream entertainment like Yahoo and others."

"YouTube, which sprung out of nowhere a year ago to now claim over 100 millions views a day, is negotiating for rights to post current and archive music videos on its site, and said any commercial model it decides on will offer the videos free."

"'What we really want to do is in six to 12 months, maybe 18 months, to have every music video ever created up on YouTube,"'co-founder Steve Chen told Reuters. 'We're trying to bring in as much of this content as we can on to the site.'"

"[Chen] said YouTube intends to differentiate itself from pay-to-view or download services like Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL Music, or others like Yahoo Inc.'s Yahoo Music, which is supported by an advertising revenue share model with record labels."

"Its business model is being developed in tandem with all the major record labels, YouTube said, but did not give any names. Warner Music Group Corp. and EMI confirmed to Reuters that they have been in discussions with YouTube."

"Getting the record labels to agree to a business model is crucial as YouTube has run into trouble in the past when users posted copyrighted videos from television shows."

"'Right now we're trying to very quickly determine how and what the model is to distribute this content and we're very aggressive in assisting the labels in trying to get the content on to YouTube,'" Chen added.

"Warner Music and EMI said they are each trying to work out a business model with YouTube. Other major record companies including Universal Music and Sony BMG could not be reached for immediate comment."