Skip to main content

Warner Music Buries Hatchet, Bring Music Videos Back to YouTube

youtube-bigLate last year, Warner Music demanded all its music videos be removed from the video sharing service YouTube in a licensing spat: although Warner was one of the first big content providers to partner up with YouTube—dating back to before the site’s acquisition by Internet titan Google, the company wasn’t happy with the revenue arrangements. But now they’re back: Warner Music Group is bringing its artists and video back to YouTube in a worldwide, multi-year agreement.

Neither company has released specific financial terms of the arrangement; however, under the deal Warner will be able to sell their own ads to appear alongside their video content on the YouTube site, and will also be able to tap into YouTube’s Content ID technology to leverage revenues from user-generated uploads to YouTube that contain Warner Music content—in other words, Warner Music Group will be able to earn money from ads placed alongside those unauthorized uploads, rather than taking an active role of policeman and insisting they be taken down. Warner will also be able to set up YouTube Channels to promote its artists and music offerings.

Bringing Warner Music Group back into the YouTube universe means that YouTube once again has videos from all four major music distribution companies: Universal, Sony, and EMI have stuck with YouTube, and Universal’s music channels is consistently one of the most popular channels on the site.

Editors' Recommendations

Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
I couldn’t live without this simple desktop YouTube feature
YouTube app running on an Amazon Fire Max 11.

Big YouTube fan? I know I am. I have ASMR content rolling all day while I'm writing away, so yes, I'm one of those people who pays for YouTube Premium. But one feature I've been using a ton recently doesn't require a premium membership -- the excellent picture in picture mode.

I'm a big synthwave nerd too. That's not relevant, I just love The Midnight. Image used with permission by copyright holder
How to use YouTube picture in picture
If you typically watch YouTube on your phone, you've probably come across this feature already. You just swipe away from the app to 'exit' it while you're watching a video, and it will appear as a small window in the corner of your phone.

Read more
YouTube tries new way of tackling ad blockers
Youtube video on mobile. Credits: YouTube official.

YouTube could be about to launch a widespread crackdown on folks using ad blockers.

Reports emerged last month that YouTube was deploying pop-ups to warn against the use of ad-blocking tools. But now it's taking the action one step further.

Read more
Forget text-to-image; this AI makes videos from your prompts
Watching a video on the iPhone 14 Plus.

You've likely heard about the amazing results realized by text-to-image AI such as Dall-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney. As you might have expected, the revolution is marching onward, with the next target being text-to-video AI tools.

QuickVid generated this video about a DJI Drone and astronauts on Mars.

Read more