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Net video killed the radio star

YouTube is in negotiations with record labels over plans to post music videos online. The talks are part of the site’s plans to expand beyond its roots as a community web site that allows users to post videos online to become a legitimate distributor of commercial video clips, among other ventures.

The site, which claims 100m views a day, is in talks to obtain rights to post music videos on the site that will be free for surfers to download, possibly supported by ad-based revenue. The business model for the delivery of music videos is undecided but YouTube has set itself the ambitious target of delivering a complete music video catalogue on a “free-to-net” basis.

“What we really want to do is in six to 12 months, maybe 18 months, to have every music video ever created up on YouTube,” co-founder Steve Chen told Reuters. “We’re trying to bring in as much of this content as we can on to the site.”

Full story: The Register