Warner Music Group - Controversy and Criticism

Controversy and Criticism

In December 2008, negotiations between WMG and YouTube broke down. As a result, Warner Music Group has continuously blocked or muted videos on YouTube that feature music recordings belonging to its labels or to its publishing arm, Warner/Chappell Music, citing copyright infringement but many weren't even signed with WMG. Although the majority of the blocked videos are not official content of WMG, they include WMG recordings in a minor way normally covered by Fair Use. Many of these claims to copyright violation not only affect artists who are under record labels owned or distributed by WMG, but also to artists who have songs published and controlled by Warner/Chappell, regardless of label. This makes the association between non-WMG artists and WMG much less apparent to YouTube users as music publishers, unlike record labels, generally do not brand themselves to their recordings. Muting also occurred to clips featuring people covering a song by a WMG artist or of a song controlled by Warner/Chappell. The response from YouTube users on affected videos has been overwhelmingly negative towards WMG. Notably, Seattle band Death Cab for Cutie was affected when music videos streamed on their website from their Atlantic Records albums Plans and Narrow Stairs were removed by WMG. The issue and opinion of WMG has since worsened when they began removing and muting songs that are covers rather than just recordings.

With the rise of music video games, CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. complained that "The amount being paid to the music industry, even though games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small", and he concluded that "we will not license to those games." However, if they found new and better ways to promote music and new ways to make profit, this would not be a problem. A Wired magazine article claimed that Rock Band publisher MTV Games has boycotted WMG as a result, but both parties have claimed this to be untrue. WMG has not made any new content deals with MTV Games since August 2008. This had led to a backlash against WMG by fans of these games.

Many anti-Warner videos have appeared on YouTube from users due to outrage over their videos being blocked, muted or removed by WMG. There have been provisions by some YouTube users to boycott and sometimes ban any material exhibited on YouTube specifically by Warner Music Group, as well as former owners Time Warner and Warner Bros. In some videos that have music playing in the background, YouTube users intentionally make loud noises or speak very loudly so the music in the background cannot be heard, and therefore WMG has less grounds to mute on. Online rallies, protests and organizations have been formed against WMG, and on multiple occasions YouTube users have hosted online petitions demanding that Warner Music Group permanently withdraw its control and censorships from YouTube.

On September 21, 2009, CNET reported that Warner Music Group had possibly struck a new deal with YouTube and WMG videos may start appearing back on YouTube within weeks. It was confirmed on Warner Music Group News and the YouTube Blog on September 29, 2009 that YouTube and Warner Music Group were in a multi-year deal with the two. In January 2010, there have been new reports of YouTube accounts containing covered songs completely closed due to intervention by WMG. This following a contest by Red Hot Chili Peppers bass player Michael "Flea" Balzary to cover their songs. An end solution seems not to have been found as of February 1, 2012.

In February 2010, CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. said that Warner Music Group will stop licensing its songs to free music streaming services. He said that the focus will be on services that require payment. However, this has predictably only created an increase of the corporation's boycott and lack of respect.

When WMG took over Roadrunner Records, the label refused to release an album by Delain, supposedly because the genre of the record was metal. This caused a major uproar among fans of the band.

Warner Music drew criticism and outrage for refusing to put its music on Google's music site Google Music, but relented a year after the public release of Google Music with an announcement on October 29, 2012 that it had added its music portfolio to Google's offerings.

Warner Music Group was a supporter of the Stop Online Piracy Act in 2012.

As of September 2012, all WMG YouTube videos have been un-muted.