Muse manager: “YouTube is the devil”
April 22, 2016
Peter Mensch, the manager of rock bands including Muse, Metallica and Red Hot Chili Peppers, says YouTube is killing the record industry.
“YouTube, they’re the devil,” he told a BBC Radio 4 documentary on the music business. “We don’t get paid at all.” He said the site’s business model, in which artists make money by placing ads around their music, was unsustainable.
“If someone doesn’t do something about YouTube, we’re screwed,” he said. “It’s over. Someone turn off the lights.”
Responding to Mensch’s comments, YouTube Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl suggested artists were not seeing YouTube payments because of the agreements they had with their record labels.
“It really depends on what is the flow of the money from us to you,” he said. “The artists who are signed up directly with YouTube are seeing great returns,” he said. “Not everybody – but if you’re generating a lot of viewership, you’re making a lot of money.”