Mark Cuban (media/ tech/ entertainment entrepreneur) posted a really interesting forward he got about the Google aquisition of YouTube.
The author of the email isn't revealed, so it's not official documentation of the deal... but for anybody who worries about the "how artists get paid," you might be worrying more about artists than the mainstream media companies who claim to care about them. As mainstream media companies work so hard to resist the all the emerging ways in which art can be produced/consumed/organized, here we have an example of a way these companies can go out of their way to not pay artists.
The media companies had their typical challenges. Specifically, how toget money from Youtube without being required to give any to thetalent (musicians and actors)? If monies were received as part of a license to Youtube then they would contractually obligated to share a substantial portion of the proceeds with others. For example most record label contracts call for artists to get 50% of all license deals. It was decided the media companies would receive an equity position as an investor in Youtube which Google would buy from them. This shelters all the up front monies from any royalty demands by allowing them to classify it as gains from an investment position. A few savvy agents might complain about receiving nothing and get a token amount, but most will be unaware of what transpired.You can read the full post here.
