Music Publishing News Weekly Roundup: October 25, 2013

Google’s YouTube is expected to launch a freemium, on-demand music streaming service before the year’s end. Sources report the service, which is designed with mobile usage in mind, will be similar to Spotify, but with video. Google already acquired most of the licenses required to launch the service in preparation for its Google Play Music All Access launch earlier this year. YouTube’s new streaming service is expected to launch before Beats Music, which may not launch until early 2014.

STIM, Sweden’s PRO, has inked a deal with YouTube to pay Swedish artists, songwriters and rightsholders a percentage of ad revenue on a pan-European basis. International creators will also earn revenues in Sweden. The deal is similar to those YouTube has executed with other European PROs, including PRS for Music in the U.K., BUMA Stemra in the Netherlands, SGAE in Spain, SIAE in Italy and SACEM in France.

Downtown Music Publishing has acquired US administration rights for five of The Beatles’ songs that had previously been controlled by UMPG. Downtown also began administering John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s catalogs earlier this year. Downtown is now incorporating Songtrust’s technology into its own operation for automated copyright registration, tracking royalty payment inefficiencies and direct royalty collection from 16 different societies around the world.