YouTube fan videos earn labels more than official clips

Record labels make more money from fan-made videos uploaded to YouTube than they do from their official music videos, according to Francis Keeling, the Global Head of Digital Business for Universal Music Group.

"A lot of that is due to consumers putting more and more repertoire and new versions up there, but also it’s YouTube getting better at advertising”, Keeling told the Toronto Star.

While fan-made videos used to be seen as a breach of copyright by both labels and YouTube, and swiftly removed, a change in thinking and increased attempts to monetise content now means that rather than YouTube simply removing offending videos, record companies are instead notified when a user uploads copyrighted content. The label can then choose to place advertising before the video, making royalties from the views.

“It’s a massive growth area", Keeling said. "We’re very excited about the creativity of consumers using our repertoire and creating their own versions of our videos," he adds.