LOS ANGELES: Due primarily to its low royalty payments and safe-harbour protection, YouTube has been the whipping boy of the music industry for several years now.
So when the first instalment of a study the company commissioned from RBB Economics was issued earlier this month – and which claimed, among other things, that piracy would actually increase without YouTube, and that 85% of the time currently spent watching music videos on YouTube would be spent on similar or lower-value channels – the reaction was strong.