Music video's have long been seen as a promotional tool of the music industry, but now the suited men and women over at Universal Music Group intend to turn this promotional tool into a profit tool by charging Internet companies and Satellite services for streaming their music videos. The other major record labels are expected to follow which means this will be a major change for the entertainment industry and a nuisance for some Internet based companies. AOL music and Yahoo's Launch are two examples of services that were setup around streaming free music videos to Internet users.
Music services have already received notifications of this new policy. The policy will also cover live performances of Universal artists. Of course, Universal had to think of a way to force companies to adapt to this new policy, and they did, they will refuse to buy any advertising on any site that doesn't make a deal under the new policy. The record companies have been taking advantage of the massive amount of promotion on-demand video services are giving them. AOL music says it gets about 4 million viewers per week and versions of videos shown on Time Warner Cable's were watched about 8 million times monthly.
Source:
News.com












