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YouTube and GEMA Reach Licensing Agreement

November 3, 2016

After years of legal disputes, German royalty collection society GEMA has finally reached a licensing agreement with YouTube. Through this agreement, songwriters and artists registered with GEMA are now able to get paid for the use of copyrighted works on the video platform.

Back in 2009, a contract between the digital video giant and GEMA came to a close and was never renewed due to disputes over pay-outs. That means for over seven years, any music from the GEMA repertoire was not accessible on YouTube – instead, users repeatedly saw blocking messages. This agreement allows those previously unlicensed music videos to be available all over the region, which means great things for artists looking for exposure on the platform and monetize their music on YouTube in a major market.

TuneCore offers artists the opportunity to monetize their own sound recordings on YouTube. That means artists can earn money when they and other people use their sound recordings in their videos all over YouTube.

Through the agreement between the GEMA and YouTube, all TuneCore artists now have the opportunity to earn money when their music is streamed on YouTube in Germany. It’s especially great for German artists who will be able to reach to their local fans on YouTube and for artists with a large German audience. Through the new agreement between YouTube and GEMA, YouTube is committed to transfer he owed GEMA amounts for used YouTube audio files.

YouTube stated in a blog, “That commitment has helped YouTube evolve into an important source of promotion and revenue for musicians. As such, we continue to invest in our rights management system, Content ID, to protect rights owners while continuing to innovate and create new and exciting YouTube features such as VR and 360, that can heighten the music experience on YouTube even more.”

To learn more about how you can monetize your sound recordings on YouTube, click here!

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