YouTube Relaunches Its Music Site Day after Settling Copyright Lawsuit

YouTube has relaunched its YouTube Music page a day after settling a copyright lawsuit that could have forced it to remove a large portion of its music-video content.

The revamped site includes new partnerships, with music "tastemakers" SPIN, VICE and XLR8R providing curated music selections to help people find new music, Tim Partridge explained on the company's blog. YouTube Music also recommends videos and artists based on what you've watched and pairs concert listings with artist videos.

According to comScore, 40% of YouTube's audience watched music videos in July, making it the most popular category.

The first YouTube Music curation, from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is a quintessential rock list that includes Black Flag and Fugazi as well as Michael Jackson (the rock list also explains the special guitar logo, see above). David Guetta will publish a guide for electronica, Lady Gaga for pop, and Eminem and Royce Da 5'9"'s for hiphop.

We have asked YouTube for comment about the relaunch and will update this story if we receive a response.

YouTube reached a settlement yesterday with the National Music Publishers Association, ending a four-year legal battle that alleged YouTube was committing copyright infringement. The settlement allows publishers and songwriters to license their material and collect revenue from the ads that run on each video.

The original face of YouTube Music was Musicians Wanted, an extension of the YouTube Partner Program for indie musicians that debuted in March 2010 at SXSW.

The program gives artists a 50-50 split of ad revenue, according to an NPR report. As a result, music videos are seen as additional revenue, not just promotional material.

The Pomplamoose, one of the first groups invited to join Musicians Wanted, gained notoriety with its cover of Beyonce's "Single Ladies," which has more than 8M views (cha-ching!).



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