YouTube has brokered a deal with the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society – Performing Right Society Alliance (MCPS-PRS Alliance forthwith) in order to legally endorse the use of recorded music on YouTube.

The MCPS and PRS currently collect royalties for 50,000 composers, songwriters and publishers and have entered into the deal with YouTube in order to further enforce DRM issues in what is essentially a bit of a copyright Wild-West.

The deal will see YouTube pay a blanket fee to the MCPS-PRS Alliance (ker-chiiiiing!) just as many radio and television broadcasters do. This will essentially make it legal for music to be used in amateurs’ videos, who don’t own the rights to broadcast the music.

The MCPS-PRS Alliance is said to be planning to distribute the fee it receives from YouTube among its members, according to how often certain pieces of music are played on the site. Good luck with keeping track of that.

[Via The Financial Times]

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