Universal Music and Major Publishing Group Reach Agreement Over Vevo, YouTube Royalties

Less than a week after the National Music Publishers' Association annual meeting, when president and CEO David Israelite said the organization was chasing the major labels to pay indie music publishers for videos streamed on VEVO and YouTube, the NMPA has announced its first deal with a major, the Universal Music Group.

The NMPA termed the agreement, which covers North America, a groundbreaking model licensing deal because it will allow songwriters and music publishers to share in revenue from music videos. Up until now, while YouTube and VEVO were making money on their ad-supported services, indie music publishers had not shared in that revenue because the major labels long considered videos as promotional tools and never paid for licensing the songs used in the videos. But as it became a growing revenue stream, indie publishers began to grumble that the major labels paid the major publishing companies but none of the independent music publishers.