Head of PRS, Steve Porter said: ‘The move punishes British consumers and the songwriters whose interests we protect and represent' and has asked the Google-owned website to reconsider its decision.
He claims Google, which began blocking videos yesterday evening, took the decision as it wanted to reduce the amount it was paying song writers. YouTube currently pays a licence to the PRS, acts as a collecting society for member publishers for licensing fees relating to use of music, in order to stream music videos from three of the four major music labels as well as a large number of independent music companies.
In its defence, YouTube claims that the PRS had asked for unrealistic fee increases for a new licence and that it had not offered enough transparency with regard to which artists would be covered.
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