Casting themselves as a collective David to an American Goliath, British and other European independent record producers threatened on Wednesday to boycott MTV channels to protest a 55 percent cut in royalties paid for music videos.
In response, MTV said it would reopen negotiations to look for a way to defuse a problem that erupted this month after it said it would stop broadcasting videos from companies that refused to accept the reduced royalty payments.
Unlike in the United States, where MTV does not pay for video clips from independent producers, European independents, who account for about 21 percent of the Continent’s $12 billion music industry, regard royalties for video clips as a significant source of money to promote often innovative music and little-known musicians. [more @ www.nytimes.com]