YouTube Is Blocking Indie Music Labels Who Don’t Agree With Their New Licensing Terms

YouTube will start pulling indie musicians from labels that refused the company's licensing terms for its forthcoming subscription music service off their website

YouTube is in the process of redesigning how users get music from their site. It will be in two tiers—free and paid—allowing paid subscribers ad-free, off-line streaming. Labels are not happy with the amount of money they will be paid for the free, ad-supported streams, according to the Financial Times. So some indie labels have decided to hold out for a better deal from YouTube. However, rather than negotiate, YouTube will start to remove those labels and their artists from the site.

YouTube says that labels "representing 95 percent of the music industry have signed up to the new terms" however Merlin, a digital rights agency for independent labels, refutes that claim and says indies make up 32.6 percent of the global music marketplace. There isn't any word on the status of any indie hip-hop labels so far however XXL will update as the situation progresses.

[Gawker,  Financial Times]