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Beth Orton speaks out about YouTube music video cull

Singer underlines the importance of royalties

March 11, 2009 | 8 Comments
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Beth Orton has spoken out about the importance of music royalties following YouTube's decision to remove all premium music videos from the UK site.

The movewas made after a dispute with the Performing Rights Society, which had been holding out for a better pay deal for artists whose videos get played on the site.

Orton said that royalties were vital for artists as they couldn't earn enough money just from playing live and releases. "Certain people can’t just make money from gigs, can they?" she told BBC 6music.

She added: "You should get money from recording, because record deals are different now as well, so it would make sense that revenue has to come from somewhere. It's been lovely for me because I've had the last two years to just concentrate on my little girl.

"That's been from working really hard for 10 years and then being able to live off the back of what I've done when those little royalty cheques come in."

YouTube representatives are currently negotiating with those for the PRS in an attempt to agree on a new deal that would allow premium music videos to be added to the site again.

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Comments (8)

Add a comment

aphexbin

Mar 11, 2009

'I want more money'

verymetal13

Mar 11, 2009

Good lord! id forgotten about her!!

allgoodinleeds

Mar 11, 2009

"working really hard for 10 years and then being able to live off the back of what I've done" - wish I could retire at 30

wonkeykong

Mar 11, 2009

obviously royalties are important to a struggling artist living hand to mouth, but someone in beth orton's position who must have banked some serious figures by now should stop worrying about squeezing every penny out of every medium and sometimes stand back and appreciate the fact that their work is reaching fans in a much better way than 10 years ago when we were all stuck with bloody capital fm and about 2 other options. if i was an artist i'd be happy for people to have access to my music in this sort of way, its about the art first and money a far distant 4th or 5th

stickyfiddle

Mar 12, 2009

wonkeykong- have you considered that although the music itself is important, that if an artist can't pay the rent or struggles to feed their family then having thousands of fans is kinda irrelevant. Musicians need to be paid or there will be no more music.

rantboy

Mar 12, 2009

re allgoodinleeds: if you wasnt a pussy and took the plunge to make some records then you might be able to.re wonkeykong: why shouldnt musicians make music. the problem with people like you is you think music is this mystikal purity sent from the gods. bollox. beth orton has the right to earn millions just like you or me. as long as you go about things the right way, like she has then she has my respect.utter morons

kwisj

Mar 12, 2009

I agree with wonkeykong I don't live in the UK, and I don't get MTV, they've taken off MTV2 from the spanish sattelite, so the only chance to see music vids for me is via youtube. youtube gives access to a lot of artist's music to people who like to watch vids on demand. I mean watching them off youtube, is hardly like having the DVD is it. Normally the quality is middling at the best, but you do get the chance to check out vids for your fave tunes without a lot of hassle. All I can say to people like Beth is ''kerching'' (sound of an old till, like MIA's ''paper planes'').

wonkeykong

Mar 13, 2009

stickyfiddle, read the first line of my comment. rantboy, musicians SHOULD make music. in fact if they didn't they wouldn't really be musicians at all would they? my point is if you've earnt enough to live comfortably, money should not be your motivation. chasing that 7th million should take a back seat to letting people appreciate your art. can you not see the difference between an accomplished artist who makes good music because they can and all the lil'wayne money-orientated bullshit out there?