A new YouTube melody for European musicians

If you are of my generation and love Jacques Brel, it's a great day. For my kids, who adore Selah Sue and fantasy character Mega Mindy, it's also a great day. From now on, videos of these Belgian artists will become easier to find on YouTube. For the first time, these Belgian artists and their estates will receive payments for allowing music lovers to listen to their music on YouTube.



This breakthrough stems from the licensing agreement signed today between collecting society SABAM and YouTube. SABAM was founded in 1922; it represents 36,000 composers, lyricists, publishers, and music video makers.

Throughout Europe over the past two years, YouTube has secured similar agreements with associations representing artists and authors in countries shown in blue: the UK, France (SACEM, SACD, SCAM, ADAGP), Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Poland.



These agreements end old arguments about copyright, replacing them with win-win arrangements. For Europe’s musicians, YouTube has become an indispensable tool in reaching audiences. Artists are compensated when advertisements are displayed against YouTube partner’s videos.

The deals demonstrate our commitment to to promoting local European cultural creation. YouTube is innovating to help artists protect and manage their rights. Our state-of-the-art Content ID technologies let rights owners identify user-uploaded videos that contain their work and choose, in advance, what they want to happen when those videos are found. They can block them from YouTube altogether, or keep them up. The vast majority of right owners agree to keep their material online - and share in the revenue generated by advertising displayed against it.

Until now, when Belgians visited YouTube, they were taken to our global site. The launch of YouTube in Belgium means Belgians will see a home page featuring a wealth of content from their home country. Partners are welcome to join us and we’re happy to learn that large Belgian media companies such as broadcaster RTBF are interested in having parts of their archives appear. For my part, I plan to catch up on Jacques Brel videos.

Posted by Julien Blanchez, Marketing Manager, Belgium