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| Irving Azoff |
On Wednesday, just as Google announced the coming launch of YouTube Music Key, its much-anticipated subscription service that will compete with Spotify and Pandora, music industry heavyweight Irving Azoff told The Hollywood Reporter that he is prepared to take 42 of his clients, representing some 20,000 copyrighted works, away from the YouTube ecosystem, including the new Music Key. The move is a huge shot across Google's bow, perhaps even more significant than Taylor Swift's much-discussed decision a week ago to remove her songs from Spotify over doubts about royalties.
Azoff is the former chairman of Live Nation who is now spearheading a new venture, Global Music Rights (GMR), aimed at extracting higher performance rights royalties for songwriters. Traditionally, those rights have been handled by ASCAP and BMI, which have been hamstrung by consent decrees with the Justice Department that requires a license be given whenever an outlet requests it.
Although the DOJ is currently reviewing the consent decrees, Azoff is moving quickly and has a message that appeals to many songwriters: As consumers gravitate more and more to streaming services in lieu of purchasing music, these services should be contributing more compensation to the ones who compose the music.
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