Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music recording company, is in talks with Google Inc’s YouTube division to create a music video venture, people familiar with the matter said.
Instead of just receiving licensing fees or a share of ad revenue from the online video site, Universal is seeking an equity relationship on an ad-supported site focused on high-quality music videos, separate from the grainy user-generated fare common to YouTube’s main site.
Other record labels, such as Warner Music Group Corp, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Group Ltd, have also been contacted about the plan, although they are not part of the talks.
Universal is a division of Vivendi SA.
The discussions began about a month ago but are still in the preliminary stages, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are confidential.
News of the talks was first reported in the Wall Street Journal.
The discussions began at the behest of Universal CEO Doug Morris, who has pushed to earn more revenue from music videos on its artists, from U2 to Lil Wayne, one person said.
Universal’s licensing arrangement with YouTube, which began in 2006, was set to expire at the end of this month, which provided another reason to revisit their agreement.
Universal’s channel on YouTube is by far the site’s most popular, generating some 3.6 billion views. The sides are considering forming a separate site under the working title “Vevo.”
Faced with declining CD sales, record labels have been experimenting with a number of ways of distributing music online, such as getting paid for streams on News Corp’s MySpace Music site.
But YouTube has run into a number of problems from content providers.
In December, Warner Music pulled all of its music from YouTube, saying the payments it received did not fairly compensate the label or its artists and songwriters.
Viacom Inc sued YouTube for US$1 billion, saying the site infringes on copyrights of its shows, including Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants.
YouTube declined to comment on the talks, but issued a statement saying: “We are always working with our partners to find creative ways to connect music, musicians, and fans.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique