This may go down in history as of the worst ideas ever conceived! YouTube who has been notorious for plucking unknowns out of obscurity and turning them into overnight successes….may now delete those artists from existence! Wasn’t the point of the YouTube the word YOU? So why the change?
According to Forbes, In only “a matter of days”, some of your favorite videos on YouTube could be gone, possibly for good.
YouTube is preparing to radically change their site, adding a subscription service that is intended to help them compete in the streaming music industry.
The video site has already signed new licensing deals with all of the major labels, but many independent or smaller labels are reportedly refusing to take part. Apparently, not only are smaller, indie labels not being offered the same deals as the majors but they are claiming that the contracts that are being offered to them are simply not fair.
So in response Google has stated that any label that does not sign a deal with them will not only be left off the new service, but will have their content taken down from the original, free YouTube as well!
Vice President and Global Head of Business at YouTube Robert Kyncl allegedly recently claimed that they already had deals with 90% of the industry, and that they had no choice but to move forward.
The new service is rumored to be called YouTube Music Pass, and is intended to change the way people use YouTube and stream music, paying a premium to skip ads. In addition, people will be able to download music directly from Music Pass, not just listen. The field is already crowded with popular programs like Spotify, Beats Music, iTunes Radio, Samsung’s Milk and recently added Amazon Prime Music.
But the biggest piece of this is that emerging artists may have a harder time sharing their music and videos as a result of this. As sales decline, more and more people look to sites like Youtube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp to let people stream their music, with YouTube being far and away the most popular. Barring lesser-known names from the most popular streaming site in the world could seriously damage the growth of independent artists, and hurt the careers of future stars. The unsigned generation has been able to buck the system and grow fan bases because of the ability to post music to YouTube…if they get sold out for the majors it’s going to be a problem all the way around.
Somehow we think people are going to be up in arms about this one! Everyone thinks they are a star…and they love the idea of being able to incorporate YouTube into that vision. All you have to do is search the site to see that this is true! So, people will be disgusted that their fave independent artists are being taken away from them sure..but they will also be vexed that they will no longer have it for an option for themselves….should they decide to jump on their grandmother’s new mixtape! And trust us…they are going to decide to jump on their grandmother’s new mixtape!
Maybe it’s time to allow some other video-centric companies to come in and take over where YouTube wants to leave off? We’re not sure what the next step is going to be…we just know it’s important that there is indeed a next step!
This might get messy before it’s all over. Stay tuned!
Speak On It!