Industry: YouTube and ASCAP Share Data

One of the big topics in music and video streaming right now is how to compensate music artists for their work. Currently YouTube has a content ID system in place that will flag videos for music content and then pay that artist accordingly. But what if an artist covers a song? The youtube way doesn't identify that nearly as well. mainly because it is compensating based on a recording vs covers. ASCAP is a performing rights organization that pays out to songwriters and publishers when a song is performed. By partnering with ASCAP's database, YouTube will now be able to better compensate the songwriter for the performance of their song in a virtual space using their Content ID system. BMI, another performing rights organizations, has a deal with YouTube already.

This is a huge step in fair compensation for songwriters and artists. Many artists complain that streaming sites don't pay out nearly enough. I often argue that this new technology will pay out better for most artists in the long term as a higher adoption rate is met. YouTube's partnership with ASCAP reinforces this as the deal is happening from increased revenue from their new YouTube Red subscription platform. YouTube currently pays the least of all streaming services, this development will change that for the better.

Read more about the deal at this location.