One Of The Most Successful Music Managers Ever Just Blasted YouTube

Irving Azoff is the chairman and CEO of Azoff MSG Entertainment, a music, media and entertainment company that creates new avenues and opportunities for artists. On Monday Azoff

to

's YouTube business in response to the streaming video site's blog posted titled

YouTube said in its blog that there has been a lot of misinformation regarding its treatment of artists. The company said, "No other platform gives as much money back to creators--big and small-- across all kinds of content." YouTube added that it is unfair to compare its free ad-supported streaming video business to Spotify's that benefit from charging customers $10 a month. Azoff took offense to YouTube's blog. "If YouTube valued music, then it would allow artists to have the same control which YouTube grants to itself," Azoff wrote. "YouTube has created original programming. Those programs sit behind a "paid wall" and are not accessible for free unless YouTube decides to make them available that way. If a fan wants to watch the YouTube series "Sister-Zoned," that fan has to subscribe to YouTube Red for $9.99 a month. But the same does not apply to music." Azoff continued that an artist like Taylor Swift should be able to decide which of her songs are available for free and which will be offered as part of a subscription service. Alternatively, Swift should also be given the option to completely opt out of YouTube. Azoff added in his letter that YouTube hides behind "safe harbor laws" and has benefited from the unfair advantages it offers. He explained: "You state with apparent pride that you have licenses with labels, publishers and PROs. But don't confuse deals made out of desperation with marketplace deals made by willing participants. YouTube has benefited from the unfair advantage which safe harbors gives you: Labels can take the deals you offer or engage in an impossible, expensive game of "whack a mole," while the music they control is still being exploited without any compensation. Spotify and Apple don't have that advantage, and this is why they are better partners to music creators." Bottom line, Azoff argued that the YouTube platform "works very well for you and for Google" but it "doesn't work well for artists." "The music community is traditionally a very fractured one, but on this we are united," he warned in his final sentence.