Google is going to remove all music from Denmark from YouTube

Google has announced that it is going to remove all Danish music content from YouTube video hosting service. This was announced By the society for collecting rewards for songwriters, composers and music publishers from Denmark Koda (Komponistrettigheder i Danmark) on July 30, 2020.

• While negotiations on a new joint Scandinavian agreement are in full swing, Google has decided to make the most of its complete market dominance, – quotes habr.com message from Koda representatives.

Currently, negotiations on an agreement on the use of music on YouTube are underway between the Scandinavian Alliance Polaris and Google. The new document is intended to replace several separate agreements with Norwegian, Finnish and Danish societies of composers and songwriters.

The agreement with Danish Koda expired in April, but it was temporarily extended as part of the procedure for discussing a new one. However, Google then issued an ultimatum, under which Koda must reduce payments to composers and songwriters for using YouTube music by 70%. At the same time, the society notes that the use of music on YouTube in recent years, while the previous agreement was in effect, has only increased. As a result, they refused to sign up for the new terms. And Google has unilaterally decided that koda members can’t show their content on YouTube.

— Although the parties involved in the negotiations on the new pan-Scandinavian agreement have not yet agreed, some progress has been made in recent weeks, and Koda is puzzled by the extremely aggressive approach taken by Google in the negotiations this time, – said the Danish society.

According to koda media Director Kaare Struve, Google has always followed the “there are two opinions — mine and the wrong one” approach, but even for the search giant, this is a new level of decline.

“Of course, Google knows that they can cause huge frustration among members of our organization by denying them access to YouTube — and among the many Danes who use The service every day”, Struve says. – We can only assume that thanks to this, YouTube hopes to push through an agreement on their terms.

Koda Executive Director Gorm Arildsen said that the society has been trying for years to “put an end to the gratuitous approach of tech giants and underpayment for artistic content in connection with the new EU copyright Directive.”