Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014 in Cannes, France, YouTube VP of content Tom Pickett, answered questions during a discussion panel about the more than $1 billion paid to music rights holders. As many people may know, YouTube is a popular video platform for the music industry with hundreds of videos uploaded daily for the promotion of artists and to keep fans highly entertained. Pickett states, “If you think about it, we’ve paid out to the music industry over the last several years over $1 billion. So there is money being generated in this ad-supported model. It is going to artists.”
Although Google Inc. and YouTube have a solid platform people still believe they are not doing enough. For example, Geoff Taylor, the chief executive of BPI and the BRIT Awards, recommended YouTube include a paid subscription service to generate revenue that would also go towards artists. Currently, YouTube is a free service that allows a person to upload and view videos for free. Taylor also touched on the issued of links to illegal sites that allow users to engage in music piracy.
“When you know that stuff is illegal, you surely have got the responsibility to take that knowledge into account and do something with your search rankings, which gives the legal sites a chance to put themselves in front of consumers rather than the pirate sites.” “To have a really productive partnership, Google and YouTube need to do more on that.” -Geoff Taylor
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