YouTube strikes momentous deal with GEMA in Germany

YouTube has struck a new agreement with German collection society GEMA, which will see a wide range of previously unlicensed music videos made available in Germany.

For the past seven years, YouTube and GEMA had failed to reach an agreement over video licensing in the region. However, the stand-off was brought to an end this morning, with YouTube revealing news of the new deal via a blog post on its official blog page.

The company’s head of international music partnerships, Christophe Muller, commented: “We’re committed to ensuring that writers, composers and publishers continue to be paid fairly, and that our users are able to enjoy their favourite songs and discover new music on the platform. We are extremely pleased to have reached an agreement with GEMA to help their members earn revenue and to enable new musical talents to emerge.

“YouTube has evolved into an important source of promotion and revenue for musicians and we are pleased that GEMA members will benefit from their creative work on YouTube.”

The statement also said that the company will continue to invest in its rights management system, Content ID, to protect rights owners, while developing features such as VR and 360.