YouTube Notes That Free Music, With Ads, Pays As Well, If Not Better, Than Paid

from the those-digital-dimes-add-up dept

One of the more frustrating things about watching people declare certain things as “fact” in the tech world is the failure to recognize the rate of change and trends as they go. For example, for years, people dismissed the idea that music on YouTube could effectively be monetized if it was available for “free.” And yet, now YouTube is noting that free music can actually pay just as well as paid music services, and the trend certainly suggests that the money from the free music on YouTube is growing much faster in its earning potential than any paid service. Of course, how long will it take for the major record labels to recognize this. Warner Music has already declared that it won’t do any more free streaming deals. On top of that, the rumors about both Spotify and Google Music in the US have all been about how the labels don’t want to allow much free music to be offered. How many times does it need to be explained to record label execs that “free” does not necessarily mean “no money,” and when done correctly, it can actually mean “more money.”

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Comments on “YouTube Notes That Free Music, With Ads, Pays As Well, If Not Better, Than Paid”

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26 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

You obviously didn’t read the article.
“Google?s YouTube ? itself a major repository of recorded music ? claims that giving away music for free generates as much money for copyright holders as charging for it, with profound implications for freemium digital music services such as Spotify and the much-rumored Google music service.”

Hephaestus (profile) says:

Re:

“Business has risk and uncertainy! However will we survive!”

You forget there is a difference between a monopoly and a business. Monopolies do not do well when competition occurs. They don’t know how to adapt or compete.

The record labels are like flies in amber. They have created a system over the past 100 years that prevents competition and allows for their monopoly. Between the laws they have lobbied for, collection societies, contracts with artists, laws in other countries, distribution deals, and management, it does not allow for flexibility on their part.

They can not change because their are to many players, and to many rules, pulling in to many directions. Which is why they will fail.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re:

Not intended. The concept is that it can make more money. It can also make coffee, mow your lawn, and cure the common cold. It isn’t a question of “can”, it is a question of “does it”? The answer is no. What Google is putting out there is for their own benefit, and not for anyone else.

Consider:

YouTube can make as much money for labels as paid services, following a massive, 200-to-300 percent increase in the revenue it generates for copyright holders over the past year.

What Youtube/Google doesn’t talk about is how they pretty much had to be put at gunpoint to sign distribution deals, the ones they tried very hard to avoid.

They are also doing it by piling on the ads, heavily. Where they can get away with it, Youtube displays ads over video, and sometimes even pre-rolls ads before a video.

Further, they are attempting to end around the whole copyright issue by promoting use of their embedded videos with adwords on them. Short term, it may be a money maker, but more and more ads just drives people to pirate sites rather than youtube.

What it “can” do and what it “will” do is two completely different things.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re:

Gunpoint? You mean like record labels who won’t even put content on Youtube?

Youtube already makes money. It doesn’t generate plagues or coffee. It has the potential to generate more money, but industry supporters would rather have less money and the illusion of control.

Can anyone seriously believe it’s the ads on youtube that drive people to piracy?

Hardik Upadhyay (profile) says:

Remember one thing - YouTube is part of Google

I am not able to understand one thing. Why everyday people debate on one thing. Making one or the other product of google as the paid version.

But guys.. remember one thing, Google is built on the advertising payment model and it has lot of sources to generate revenue.

If at all they want to monetize any of its product, they will bundle it with lot of other products. Eg. Google Apps

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