YouTube claims to have paid out more than a billion dollars to the music industry

Google has announced that with its video website YouTube it has already paid out a billion dollars, converted 740 million euros, to rights holders in the music industry. However, many copyright holders believe that Google needs to do more to generate revenue from YouTube content.

Speaking at a music industry conference in Cannes, Tom Pickett, Google’s vice president for YouTube content, said the video site has paid out more than $1 billion in recent years, with no more precise time frame. That reports The Guardian. The CEO also stated that his company is fully committed to music.

At the same time, several music label representatives expressed dissatisfaction with Google’s efforts. There was a lot of negative talk about Google’s dominant influence, according to The Guardian. Representatives of major music labels would like to see Google set up subscription services for music. At the same time, Axel Dauchez, CEO of music streaming service Deezer, said that YouTube is “the main legal pirate.” Among other things, the lack of action against websites that make it possible to rip YouTube videos and audio would be bad blood.

Spotify recently announced that it has paid out more than $1 billion to copyright owners since its inception. Google has thus paid comparable amounts to the music industry with its video service. Music videos are very popular on YouTube; VideoInk research shows that 38.4 percent of videos viewed are music videos.