Indie bands face ban over YouTube licensing row

Zee Media Bureau/Aparna Mudi

New Delhi: Popular video streaming website, YouTube, has decided to take off some indie music labels from its website. In a big move, Google owned YouTube is now going to start charging for the music it streams. This would affect thousands of music labels and smaller groups unless they sign a licensing agreement with the site. Smaller bands and labels have protested the move as the deal allows them smaller payouts compared to other video streaming sites like Spotify, Pandora and Rhapsody. The website has decided to ban these smaller bands who have opposed the move and refused to sign the deal. This was done to provide consistent services to the customers and give them similar experience in all their channels. This may also help in streaming music for the entire album of the artist instead of just one video as is the norm now. It would also provide a advertisement free viewership experience. Another feature that YouTube may include in this is watching the content that the user has paid for offline as well; a feature that rival streaming websites already provide. The indie bands have expressed their concern that Google is trying to strong arm the smaller artists into signing terms and conditions and they may have to look at other channels for streaming their videos. Around ten percent of the musicians have not signed the deal yet.