Hamburg, Germany — Music lovers in German hoping to get a glimpse of their idols’ latest hits on video-sharing website YouTube, lost access Wednesday to a vast collection of contemporary music in Europe’s biggest nation after a licensing dispute with a German fees agency escalated. “This video is not available in your country,” said a message when computers connected to the Internet in Germany tried for example to open YouTube’s “Viva la Vida” clip by British rock bank Coldplay.
A YouTube spokesman confirmed that YouTube is no longer allowing access to music videos belonging to the largest music labels after talks with Germany’s biggest royalty collections group, GEMA, broke down.
GEMA, a group representing 60,000 German artists, said in a statement: “YouTube has declared that it is blocking videos from recording firms on the German YouTube platform — similar to what happened in Britain two weeks ago.”
YouTube, which is owned by US search engine giant Google and is the world’s biggest online video platform, began late Tuesday to gradually block German access to music provided by main labels EMI, Sony Music and Universal and by many smaller recording companies.
It was hitting back against a demand from Gema, a German public agency that collects a performing-right fees, for 1 euro cent per video download. Gema, which has annual turnover of 850 million euros (1.13 billion dollars) represents writers and music publishers.
The dispute is almost similar to YouTube’s spat with a royalty group in the United Kingdom, except for one important twist. According to YouTube, GEMA is asking for royalty rates that are 50 times higher than those asked for by PRS, the British organization, and YouTube argues those are even too high.
Talks between GEMA and YouTube about extending a licensing deal have failed for the time being, it said, although GEMA said it has signaled that it ready to resume talks.
A GEMA representative could not be reached for comment. But it should be noted that YouTube’s premium music video service in Germany will remain unaccessible until a new deal is struck.
GEMA said the parties were “not in agreement over fees” levied for the publication of music videos online.
“In the interest of its members, GEMA would like an appropriate share in YouTube’s income and value,” the statement said.
In November 2007, when YouTube launched a German-language portal, it agreed with Gema on a lump-sum deal which remains confidential. That deal expired on Tuesday, the end of March, and no new contract has been agreed.
Sebastian Hornik, a spokesman for Sony Germany, said, “We very much regret this situation. YouTube is a very important channel to promote our music and artists.”
Bettina Mueller, a Gema spokeswoman, said, “We do understand how important YouTube is to both fans and artists.”
The disagreement has come to a head over two issues: the level of fees and disclosure.
GEMA is demanding one US cent per song streamed online, a payout many times the sum that the PRS is requesting, according to YouTube.
“They are basically demanding us to lose money with every video playback,” said YouTube spokesman Chris Dale.
“We can not pursue unsustainable economic practices, especially in the current business environment. Until we can get rates sustainable for our business, we can not afford to keep (premium music video service in Germany) up.”
Dale said the “door is open” to negotiations with GEMA.
He continued that talks with the PRS in Britain were showing promise but premium music video service remains suspended there in the absence of a deal.
“At the end of the day, we want artists to be paid for their work on YouTube,” Dale said.
“But the money they get paid is between the label and the artist not between the artists and YouTube.”
In the disclosures dispute, Gema is demanding logs of how often videos are viewed, whereas YouTube is demanding a complete list of the artists which Gema represents. Artists can opt out of Gema’s services.
“We do not want this conflict to escalate,” responded Gema’s Mueller.
Talks are continuing but until a deal is worked out, it is unlikely German YouTube fans will be seeing any music clips.