Recently, Warner Brothers yanked all of their artists off of YouTube, due to a dispute over royalties.  Everyone initially figured it was just another arrogant move
from a greedy record company, however, singer / songwriter and Warner signed artist Neil Young is defending the labels decision.

The legendary singer recently expressed his feelings on his website blog.  "Warner Reprise records was one of the very first to embrace YouTube. YouTube was in its fledgling stages when Warner made an early deal to work with them. Today, other labels have made more lucrative deals for their artists at You Tube," Young writes. "YouTube is the new radio but not quite. Radio used to introduce music to the masses and was crucial to every new release, with identical compensation for every artist and label. Since YouTube has given some labels better deals than others, the Media Giant is treating artists unequally, depending on which label they are on."

Young went on to say, "It is time for industry wide standards of artist's compensation on the Web. Reprise and Warner Bros. Artists deserve what artists from other labels are getting," Young concludes. "Let the people decide what constitutes success. Warner Bros and Reprise are looking for a level playing field. Until they get one, these problems may not go away. That is the essence of the issue between Warner Bros Reprise and You Tube."

Neil Young will be releasing his long-awaited album of new recordings on April 7th.

-- Edited by newsbot at 05:43, 2009-03-07