YouTube, songwriters resolve dispute on royalties paid in United Kingdom

YouTube resolves UK dispute on music royalties

LONDON — YouTube and Britain’s performing rights society have reached an agreement on royalties which will end a boycott of the popular Internet video site.

YouTube blocked British users from watching thousands of videos in March after its parent company, Google, failed to agree a fee with the songwriters’ association PRS for Music.

Details of the agreement, which was announced on Wednesday, were not disclosed.

Andrew Shaw, PRS’ managing director of broadcast and online, said the issue took a long time to resolve because YouTube was a “complex beast.”

PRS for Music collects licensing fees in Britain for 60,000 songwriting and publishing members.