Google VP heckled at Midem conference

A panel discussion at the Midem music industry conference in Cannes last week incited heckling from panelists and attendees bemused by Google’s video service YouTube.

The revelation YouTube’s music payouts have surpassed $1 billion – from Google’s vice president of YouTube content, Tom Pickett – was met with surprise. Sparked by an audience member who asked Pickett what is being done about sites that allow users to download original audio stream from YouTube to MP3, the conversation soon turned sour as other attendees and panelists alike questioned Pickett.

“Certainly, on the Google search side we’re constantly trying to rank appropriately,” said Pickett (as transcribed by torrentfreak). “Google search is a reflection of what’s out there on the web. I think what you find in this phenomenon is some sites go down, new ones come up, and so it’s a game of whac-a-mole.

“We are investing a lot in trying to detect [problems]. The big thing on YouTube is that the view count is the currency and we take that very seriously and so we’re getting better and better over time about detecting bad views, bad actors out there, and we’re doing everything we can to get rid of them or discount those views on YouTube.”

As reported by The Guardian, Geoff Taylor chief executive of British industry trade body BPI, later expressed his views. “I’ve got a bit of sympathy for the comments made from the floor because we’ve been asking YouTube to deal with these stream-rippers and applications for many years […] When I looked at the billions of streams there were in music videos, and the pounds and pence coming in to the industry from that, it was a very small number.”

Taylor views the channel as a copyright competitor. BPI launched YouTube channel Transmitter with video specialist LoveLive last November to promote British acts.

Australia’s Colin Daniels of indie label Inertia shared his doubts about the pairing of Google and YouTube: “Google are not music people, and that scares me,” he said.

According to The Guardian, contention between the Internet juggernauts and the music industry is nothing new. Taylor later mentioned the ongoing friction between the parties is somewhat due to prominent placement of unauthorised (pirate) sites in search engine rankings.

“The point is that YouTube is supposed to be an ad-funded streaming service, not a free download service,” Taylor said.