US Edition 
Music videos back on YouTube in multi-million pound PRS deal
YouTube has agreed a multi-million pound deal with the Performing Rights Society for Music after six months of negotiations, paving the way for tens of thousands of music videos to return to the site today.
In March 2009, Google-owned YouTube deleted thousands of music videos from its site, after a breakdown in licensing negotiations with the PRS.
The PRS is responsible for paying out royalties to composers, publishers and songwriters. Patrick Walker, YouTube’s director of video partnerships, said at the time that the amount of money the PRS wanted was too high and would cause YouTube to lose money every time a video was played. This, he argued, was because the video service would not make enough from advertising to off-set the payments.
However, the new deal, which lasts until June 2012, sees YouTube move away from the pay-per-view model, having agreed to pay the PRS lump sum for the total three-year period.
UK music publishers, composers and writers alike are remaining tight-lipped over the amount YouTube has paid out but The Daily Telegraph understands both sides were forced to make compromises on their requests.
Mr Walker declined to disclose any of the commercial details; however, he did confirm the deal was a “lump sum” arrangement considered a “win-win” outcome for both sides.
“Both sides feel comfortable the arrangement reached will benefit those involved,” Mr Walker explained.
When asked why the deal had taken so long to negotiate, he said: “YouTube is a complex product. Both sides had to make sure any deal reached covered all premium and independent music videos, TV material which included music soundtracks in the background and user-generated content. We worked on our own timeline and have come to a good partnership which will last until 2012… We are happy to have come to a sweet spot with the PRS.”
Andrew Shaw, PRS managing director of broadcast and online, added: “We are very pleased we have been able to sign a deal which fairly remunerates artists, composers and publishers.
“Essentially we have created a framework for the YouTube platform playing music moving forward.”
Tens of thousands of music videos will return to the site from today onwards, taking approximately a week to restore all the lost material, plus all the latest music videos to have been released from the major music labels with which YouTube has commercial deals.
YouTube has arranged for several musicians, including Tinchy Stryder, Basshunter and Florence and the Machine, to be 'guest editors' in order to promote the return of music videos. They will choose their favourite videos for the site’s homepage.