Universal Music Group is locked in a chilly negotiation period with YouTube, as the major’s long-running licensing deal with Google’s platform switches to a rolling deal.
MBW understands that UMG’s licensing agreement with YouTube expired earlier this year, and currently seems a fair way off being re-signed. UMG has now been rolling on a month-to-month contract with YouTube for most of 2016, and is believed to have put together both an ‘on YouTube’ strategy and an ‘off YouTube’ strategy – the latter very much an ‘in case of emergency’ fallback. (And not a bad negotiating tool, of course.)
Both Sony and Warner’s deals with YouTube are also due to end in the coming months, MBW understands.
Source: Music Business Worldwide