Sony music company renews YouTube deal

New York, February 13: YouTube has renewed a global licensing deal with Sony music entertainment, world’s second largest recording company, according to the sources.

Now Sony Music Company has become the first of the four largest recording companies to renew deal with YouTube, a popular online video site owned by Google Inc.

The deal with Sony music is important for YouTube because Warner Music Group has withdrawn contract with YouTube last December. The contract failed because of dispute between two companies over licensing fees.

According to the blog All Things Digital, videos of Sony artists, which include Beyonce and Avril Lavrigne, will remain on the web’s most viewed video site, YouTube.

YouTube had more than 100 million users in December, according to the data released by comScore, a Web audience measurement service. And hence, Sony still sees importance in continuing to deal with YouTube, considering the huge number of users, according to the source familiar with Sony Music’s plans.

Music videos on websites like YouTube and News Corp's MySpace have now become one of the fastest growing digital revenue streams for music companies.

Other than Sony Music Company, YouTube’s music videos licenses with Vivendi's Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company and with EMI music are still running, but the talks of renewal of deal with these two companies are in the process, according to the sources.

The music labels have signed deal with YouTube in 2006 and now they are looking forward to improved payment rates which they earn from YouTube. In the initial deal, labels had allowed YouTube to showcase music videos and also allowed visitors to include the label's songs in their clips.

Labels earn on average around half a cent each time a visitor watches one of their videos on YouTube, or they can earn profit out of advertisements around the video.

YouTube itself is trying to make more profits and also negotiating with labels for better terms.