Opponents of Free Music Want YouTube Reeled In

The public debate in the digital music industry in recent months has largely boiled down to a single question: Is free music all right? The main bogeyman for record companies and unhappy artists has become Spotify, which offers a free ad-supported service alongside its paid subscription service and is working on a fundraising round that could value it at $8 billion. But an industry report released on Tuesday has singled out an additional massive destination for free online music—YouTube—and called for legal changes that would fundamentally change how music on Google’s video-sharing service works.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s 2015 report on digital music paints a picture of a stagnant industry, with overall revenue dropping slightly. But while the overall pie is about the same size, the way the pieces are sliced is changing drastically. Global digital music sales have pulled even with physical sales for the first time. Over half of digital sales still come via downloads, but subscription services make up 23 percent of the digital market.