CMRRA announced they have finalized a licensing agreement with YouTube for Canada. This marks the first major agreement for reproduction rights between YouTube and CMRRA in the Canadian territory. This is a major step forward for Canada and completely changes the landscape for rights administration in this country.
CMRRA is licensing the copies of audiovisual content made by YouTube in the course of delivering that content to users. This activity is similar to CMRRA’s Broadcast Mechanical licensing: each time audiovisual content is reproduced by YouTube or their users, so too is the music contained in that content. This type of licensing is an opportunity for an entirely new revenue stream for clients of CMRRA.
CMRRA will be collecting royalties on YouTube advertising revenue on their existing platform, as well as on subscription revenues on any subscription services they bring to Canada (including YouTube Red). The agreement also covers YouTube’s Electronic Sell Through (EST) and Transactional Video-On-Demand (TVOD) services.
CMRRA’s licensing agreement with YouTube is the first major step in our new audiovisual licensing activities, which CMRRA recently launched with a series of new tariff filings. CMRRA’s new tariffs shall apply to services that offer streams and downloads of music videos and all other audiovisual content, as well as to traditional broadcasters for audiovisual broadcasting and video-on-demand. CMRRA will use these tariffs, as well as privately negotiated agreements like this one with YouTube, to license the reproduction of musical works in our repertoire for the Canadian territory.
