ASCAP worked out a deal with YouTube so big, only Donald Trump could’ve did it bigger.
Per Billboard
ASCAP has a new plan to help its publishers and songwriters earn more money from YouTube: informing the video platform which of its members composed and published each of its songs within the vast sea of recordings and videos uploaded to the video streaming site.
In what is the performance rights group’s first-ever fully-negotiated, voluntary licensing deal with the decade-old video hub not prompted by a rate-court proceeding, ASCAP will combine its database of 10.5 million musical works with YouTube’s data exchange, a move that ASCAP’s CEO Elizabeth Matthews tells Billboard will result in bigger payouts.
The multiyear deal, effective immediately, both “substantially increases the aggregate amount of revenue” that ASCAP will collect from YouTube, and potentially boosts revenue further with data that can help YouTube’s content ID system identify more of the works that ASCAP represents, she says. The deal is also retroactive, meaning ASCAP will be compensated for its works streamed on the site since YouTube started operating on a compulsory interim license with ASCAP in 2013 — and gives the society more leverage going forward.
“Either you have a seat at the table or you get eaten for lunch,” Matthews told Billboard in an email.
While providing precise copyright ownership data to YouTube might sound like a basic precaution, performance rights groups have traditionally issued blanket licenses to venues, TV networks, radio stations and streaming services instead, using their own calculations to divvy up the revenue to their members rather than basing payouts on the exact number of times licensees played each song.
While that lack of transparency and precision has bred some frustration among songwriters in the past, YouTube’s global head of music Lyor Cohen said in a statement that it was “great to see ASCAP take a progressive approach towards the long-term financial success of its members” as YouTube delivers more advertising and subscription revenue to the music industry.
“YouTube is dedicated to ensuring artists, publishers and songwriters are fairly compensated,” Cohen said.
Payouts from YouTube and other platforms have been a source of problems for producers and songwriters. Hopefully this can solve some of those issues.