Warner - YouTube Feud: Another Setback For Google
YouTube's traffic growth and costs continue to explode. YouTube's revenue, not so much.
As we noted a few weeks back, most of the most popular videos of the year were music videos. Unlike much online video, music videos can be monetized. But YouTube can only monetize them if the labels allow YouTube to host them. And Warner and YouTube, apparently, have hit an impasse while renegotiating their licensing deal, which expires in March, 2009:
Wall Street Journal: Warner Music Group Corp.'s videos and songs began disappearing from the YouTube videosharing Web site early Saturday after talks to renegotiate a licensing deal stalled.
It isn't clear whether the decision to remove the content was made by Warner Music or YouTube. But regardless, the dispute may indicate the start of a broader dispute between YouTube and the music industry over the value of music content on the site.
