Music Manager Irving Azoff Is Fighting To Pull 20,000 Songs From YouTube

As YouTube continues to make serious business moves in the music world, some who have been in the game for decades are not taking too kindly to the digital entity. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Irving Azoff, an industry vet who topped Billboard's "Power 100" in 2012 and has a resume as reputable as anyone in the biz, is demanding that 20,000 songs be removed from YouTube. Azoff's new royalty group, Global Rights Music, is insisting that YouTube does not have the license to play these songs. A rep from Google told Wall Street Journal that YouTube has the necessary rights for its new service, "Music Key,'' but Azoff is saying that those rights do not count. Azoff also claims that any royalty deal to keep the the 20,000 songs in place on YouTube would cost exponentially more than what the service pays artists now.

If Azoff is successful, songs from artists like John Lennon and Pharrell--just to give you an idea of the scale of artists--would be gone from YouTube.

[The Wall Street Journal]
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