YouTube has changed the internet in countless ways since it was dropped upon the world wide web almost a decade ago in 2005, creating a place where people could find endless free entertainment, explore artistic as well as simply silly original content, or learn something about the world. Not only that, but it has also become a huge hub for the music industry, acting as a place where new artists could share their work, be discovered and begin careers (think Justin Bieber) or where established artists could promote their music or premiere new content, especially music videos. 

Now all of that is about to change thanks to Google, who has owned YouTube since 2006. It has been impossible not to notice the excruciating explosion of advertisements that have been getting longer and more frequent over the past several years, and now YouTube is planning to test a new subscription service called YouTube Music Pass that will allow viewers to watch videos without the bother of ads and also to download music directly to a mobile device. While we can all wish that they just didn’t have the ads in the first place, this is typical and not surprising. Business as usual in today’s world, right?

Where the problem lies is in their approach to licensing for all that music with record labels. They have already signed licensing deals with Sony, Universal and Warner, three of the biggest music conglomerates in the nation, as well as a handful of smaller independent labels, claiming these make up about 90% of the industry. For the independent labels that haven’t or won’t sign deals, however, YouTube has confirmed that they will be blocking their content “in a matter of days.” Independent doesn’t necessarily mean small, and this will affect some very popular artists such as Animal Collective, Jack White, and the Arctic Monkeys, to name just a few.

In a comment about the numbers, YouTube’s Robert Kynci said, “While we wish that we had 100% success rate, we understand that is not likely an achievable goal and therefore it is our responsibility to our users and the industry to launch the enhanced music experience.”

The unsigned companies complain that they are being offered worse deals compared to their big corporate brothers, and are also calling bull on the numbers YouTube has given, saying that the independent companies left in the dust actually make up more like 36% of the industry market.

YouTube’s plan also causes concern for what this might mean for independent musicians who put up their own content, such as a local band posting their music and homemade music videos up to try to get some attention. Will this mean YouTube will also block them, effectively ending the beautiful open creative space that YouTube once was? Possibly.

That given, what this will not mean is an end to that concept. If YouTube follows through with this, some percent of artists will not be able to reach their fans and fans will not be able to hear or see certain things that they want, so inevitably another platform will appear to fill in the gaps, although it’s still a stab in the heart to watch Big Business ruin yet another great thing for the sake of some more money. 

The testing for the new platform is set to begin sometime in the next few days and a widely available version will likely launch later this year.

Here is YouTube’s statment about the new service:

“Our goal is to continue making YouTube an amazing music experience, both as a global platform for fans and artists to connect, and as a revenue source for the music industry. We’re adding subscription-based features for music on YouTube with this in mind — to bring our music partners new revenue streams in addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars YouTube already generates for them each year. We are excited that hundreds of major and independent labels are already partnering with us.“

[Via Gizmodo and The Guardian]