YouTube forced to pay musicians more money under proposed EU copyright laws

Press publishers could also get the right to curb the online use of their articles under the proposed law

Artists and record companies could be allowed to demand more money from websites such as YouTube, under new plans to reform European copyright laws published on Wednesday.

The draft could force YouTube and others online video-on-demand sites to actively screen content to check for pirated videos. Other proposals would oblige them to be transparent to performers about how much profit is made from their works to help them negotiate better licensing deals.

Under the new proposals press publishers could also start charging for the reproduction of headlines. This means they would be recognised as rights holders for the first time and could ask Alphabet’s Google to pay for posting brief extracts of their articles online.

“Our creative industries will benefit from these reforms which tackle the challenges of the digital age,” said Günther Oettinger, the EU's digital commissioner.

A Google spokesperson told the Independent: “We believe there’s a better way. Innovation and partnership—not subsidies and onerous restrictions—are the key to a successful, diverse and sustainable news sector in the EU. And for both European creators and consumers, it’s vital to preserve the principles of linking, sharing and creativity on which so much of the web’s success is built. The appropriate balance has not yet been struck, and Google is committed to playing its part in the discussions.”

In recent years, the abundance of music available on internet for free has been making it harder for artists to earning a living.

“I want journalists, publishers and authors to be paid fairly for their work, whether it is made in studios or living rooms, whether it is disseminated offline or online, whether it is published via a copying machine or hyperlinked on the web,” Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the EU Commission, said on Wednesday.

UK Music, the body which represents the British music industry, has previously criticised YouTube for not paying artists fairly.

In May, Geoff Taylor, chief executive from the British Phonographic industry and the BRIT Awards said that YouTube was grabbing the value of music for itself by abusing royalties contracts.

Ad-supported streaming platforms, of which YouTube is the main one, contributed only 4 per cent, or £24.4 million, of total UK record industry revenues even though they have grown 88 per cent year-on-year to make up a fifth of all streamed music.

The platform’s model is different from streaming sites such as Spotify, which pays a small amount of money to record companies each time a song is played on the platform.

YouTube previously said that its rights management system, Content ID, means it pays out for music that might previously have fallen victim to piracy and enables revenue from an audience that has never before paid for music.

Revenue from Content ID represents half of what YouTube pays out annually.

“Claims that the DMCA safe harbours are responsible for a 'value gap' for music on YouTube are simply false,“ a YouTube spokesperson said in May.

The EU draft proposals will now be put to the European Parliament for revision and approval before being sent to individual member states for ratification, which could take years.