Irving Azoff, head of Global Music Rights, which manages the performance rights for Pharrell Williams, John Lennon, The Eagles, Ryan Tedder and others, has fired a warning shot at YouTube — a very large warning shot, to the tune of $1 billion, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Azoff has informed YouTube that it no longer has the rights to the 20,000-song catalog possessed by Global Music Rights, notably with the coming launch of YouTube's streaming service that will try and complete with Spotify and Pandora. The founder of Azoff MSG Enterainment previously demainded that YouTube remove his client's music from their platform and is now taking further action. However, as one might expect, Google is not going to give in to Azoff without a fight.
Many of the artists on Azoff's roster came from other PROs, such as ASCAP and BMI, where their music was licensed to YouTube. These agreements are issued for multiple years with YouTube and even if you withdraw from the PRO, the licensee, in this case YouTube does not lose the rights of the music until the expiration of the agreement.
Howard King, the GMR attorney, sent a letter to YouTube earlier this month to try and pull back the covers on YouTube's licensing agreements.
"Without providing a shred of documentation, you blithely proffer that YouTube can ignore the Notices because it operates under blanket licenses from performing rights organizations other than Global. However, you refuse to provide the details of any such license agreements, presumably because no such agreements exist for YouTube's present uses of the Songs in any service, but certainly with respect to its recently added Music Key service."
Google lawyer David Kramer responded to the King's letter, "This is now your third attempt to circumvent the straightforward DMCA notice-and-takedown process that Congress devised to handle situations like this."
Azoff's goal is to negotiate higher royalty rates for his clients. He has amassed a small, but influential roster of artists that YouTube has to contend with. The legal back and forth will surely continue over the next few months and both sides appear to be digging in. $1 billion seems a bit steep for publishing rights and probably wouldn't hold up in court, but we will see what transpires if this ends up going to court.
You can read the full letters below and stay tuned for more updates on this battle between two industry titans.
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