Warner Music Group Pulls Videos From YouTube As Talks Break Down

Warner Music Group said they will pull all of their music videos and related content off YouTube this weekend as negotiations between the label and the video site hit a stand still. WMG was one of the first of the majors to align itself with YouTube. "We are working actively to find a resolution with YouTube that would enable the return of our artists' content to the site," the label says in a statement. "Until then, we simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide."

While WMG has withdrawn their videos from YouTube, the videos are still streaming at YouTube's biggest challengers, MySpace Music and MTV Music. "Sometimes, if we can't reach acceptable business terms, we must part ways with successful partners," YouTube responds in a statement. Despite the reports and threats to pull their catalogue from YouTube, pretty much every WMG video we looked up at YouTube is still streaming. Madonna, Van Halen, T.I., Led Zeppelin… all still there, their "official video channels" still intact.

Related Stories:
• Rock Daily Searches YouTube For Robert Plant's Replacement
• YouTube Offers Music Downloads Through In-Video Icons
• Weezer Give YouTube Celebs a Sixteenth Minute in "Pork and Beans" Video

• 
  MUSIC The Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments
• 
  MOVIES & TV 'Game of Thrones': The Show Vs. the Books
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Facebook IPO vs. Shareholders
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive: Garbage Rip Through 'I Think I'm Paranoid'

Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter