Rumoured to be called YouTube Music Pass, it will be advert-free, available on all personal devices and, in an attempt to claw users from the likes of Deezer and Spotify, will offer a range of exclusive content.
Two of the refusenik labels are Domino Records, whose roster includes Franz Ferdinand and the Arctic Monkeys and XL who’ve enjoyed huge success with the likes of Adele, The Prodigy, The xx, Radiohead and Jack White.
XL are part of the Beggars Group whose CEO Martin Mills recently told Hot Press that he was a fan of the Spotify streaming model.
“The criticisms of it are unmerited,” Mills ventured. “Obviously it changes the financial model for artists – instead of a one-off buy out, you get the money for your music trickling in over a long period. But it’s a way of listening to music that the public are clearly embracing. Spotify do a good job of monetising their customers and they pay a reasonable proportion of what they earn to record labels. They’re a genuine piracy alternative. It tends to work out financially that 120 streams equals a download. I bet you there are a lot of people who’ve streamed the Adele albums more than 120 times and made more money for her and us than if they’d bought them.”
The stand-off with YouTube may just be a temporary one with Mills acknowledging the role it played in breaking one of his 4AD acts, Future Islands, internationally.
“We had a PR person in the US who did a brilliant job getting Future Islands on to Letterman, which immediately popped up on YouTube, which is a global platform,” he said.
Stay tuned to hotpress.com for the latest developments.