Youtube blocks premium music videos in UK

All premium music videos hosted on Youtube are to be blocked to UK users following a wrangle with the Performing Right Society (PRS).

The online video site started blocking thousands of videos on Monday after it failed to reach an agreement over a new licensing arrangement with the PRS, the UK society which collects royalties on behalf of artists.

Calling the decision "painful", Patrick Walker, Youtube's director of video partnerships in Europe, said in a blog that the terms the PRS had requested were too " prohibitive".

"Our previous licence from PRS for music has expired, and we've been unable so far to come to an agreement to renew it on terms that are economically sustainable for us," he said.

He said although Youtube values the creativity of musicians and songwriters and respects copyright, the PRS "is now asking us to pay many, many times more for our licence than before... we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback."

Youtube has not been helped by the complexities surrounding copyright. It has partnerships with the four largest record labels, and these companies upload music videos to the site. However, they do not own the copyright for lyrics or tunes.

Until recently royalties for these were sent to collecting societies such as the PRS. A change in the law now allows music publishers and individuals to opt out of using these organisations.

But Mr Walker accused the PRS of a lack of "transparency", saying the organisation was "unwilling" to let Youtube know what songs would be included in the licence it could provide.

"In the past they collected nearly all the royalties. Now we don't know which artists it is representing and we could have to negotiate a number of different licences so can't know how to figure out the right costs to pay the PRS," a Youtube representative said.

Patrick Walker said that Youtube was still working with the PRS to reach " mutually acceptable terms".

So far the PRS has not returned our phone calls for comment.