YouTube signs deal to bring back music videos

Video streaming website YouTube has signed a new deal with the Performing Right Society (PRS) to once again feature music videos on their site. This new deal ends a dispute between the two parties, which saw UK users unable to watch thousands of music videos on YouTube.

The original licensing agreement ended in December and after failing to reach an agreement, YouTube, which is owned by Google decided to block thousands of music videos to UK users.

The PRS, which has now been rebranded PRS for Music, collects and pays royalties to its members when a piece of music is sold, broadcast or performed in public as well as being made available online.

Google has agreed to pay the PRS a large lump sum, which will be backdated to January and cover official music videos as well as user generated content and music played in the background on TV shows.

A spokesman for YouTube said that the blocked videos will start to appear again in the next couple of days.

Google Music YouTube