‘Record companies make millions of dollars per month on the advertising that goes with their music videos on YouTube,’ says a member of the YouTube management team to the British newspaper The Independent. This is good news for the music industry, since the industry has long been struggling with declining sales. (...)

"Currently, there are three billion video views per week that bring in money, which is fifty percent more than in May last year. YouTube’s musical partners, including both major labels (like EMI, Universal, Sony) and independent labels or individual artists, saw their monthly income double or even triple." said Patrick Walker, manager at YouTube. The increase in the number of videos viewed on smartphones and tablet computer contributes a great deal to higher revenues, according to Walker.

The positive messages from YouTube come at the right time for the music industry. Last week, the combined Dutch entertainment industry reported declining turnovers over 2010. Especially the sale of CDs and DVDs is under pressure. According to the Dutch association for the music and entertainment industry NVPI, revenues from Internet channels such as YouTube are promising but their concern is that digital revenues are not able to compensate massive losses in the traditional areas of business, like selling physical records, at the present time.

Sources: Nu.nl, NVPI