Dec 22, 2008, 15:56 GMT
Los Angeles - Warner Music has begun pulling the videos of its recording stars from YouTube, after negotiations with the Google-owned video website stalled over the weekend.
The move could affect clips from artists like Madonna, Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but as of Monday morning fans could still find plenty of material from those stars available.
Warner's decision came against the background of widespread disappointment in the music industry about the amount of money YouTube is generating from advertising alongside the music videos. According to the Wall Street Journal Monday, the major music companies are making far less money from YouTube than from similar revenue-sharing agreements with MySpace's and AOL's music sites.
Warner Music, Universal Music, Sony BMG and EMI reached licensing pacts with YouTube two years ago whereby they receive a small per-stream fee for each video viewed on YouTube and a share of the advertising revenue. They are all seeking a greater share of the money YouTube generates from music videos as digital media becomes an ever more important part of their revenues.
'We simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide,' Warner said in a statement.
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