Something is kicking off in the state of Denmark, and it’s the latest music licensing controversy around YouTube.
Danish collecting society Koda issued a press release last week titled ‘Google removes all Danish music from YouTube’, although the first paragraph makes it clear that this removal hasn’t happened yet.
The background is negotiations for a new deal between YouTube and collecting societies in Norway, Finland and Denmark, operating jointly through their Polaris licensing hub to replace their existing individual deals. Koda’s expired in April, but the society says it was temporarily extended while the new Nordic deal was being thrashed out.
“Now, however, Google have issued a new demand: if the agreement is to be temporarily extended, Koda must agree to reduce the payment provided to composers and songwriters for YouTube’s use of music by almost 70%,” claimed Koda.
“Of course, Koda cannot accept these terms, and Google have now unilaterally decided that Koda’s members cannot have their content shown on YouTube and that their fans and users on YouTube will be unable to listen to Koda members’ music until a new agreement is in place.”
YouTube has yet to comment (but we’ll update this story when / if it does).
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