There’s been some brouhaha about YouTube blocking a huge swathe of music videos before launching its paid Spotify rival. The truth, however, is a little more nuanced. Labels who haven’t signed up to the website’s new terms, the majority of which are independents like XL Recordings, will have their artist channels blocked in the next few days. It’s not a blanket ban, however, since clips released through Vevo will remain, as well as fan-uploaded copies of tracks from artists like Radiohead, Adele and The xx. The kicker here, unfortunately, is that labels who won’t sign up to the paid tier are also kicked out of YouTube’s ad-supported monetization scheme. So while we may still be able to find Lotus Flower on a Radiohead fan’s channel, the band itself won’t get a single penny.
Read the full story at Engadget, and more coverage at Forbes and Billboard.