Yahoo Inc. has expanded a deal with Sony BMG that will give the Web portal's users greater access to the entertainment company's music videos, including the ability to edit hit songs into their amateur clips.
The agreement, announced Tuesday, aims to make Yahoo more appealing to online video fans in the face of stiff competition from YouTube, Google Inc.'s rival video service.
Under the deal, Yahoo will offer more Sony BMG music videos to more of its users across the globe. In addition, users will be able to add some of that music to clips that they create at home, offering a legal alternative to widespread piracy of Hollywood entertainment.
The videos will be available on Yahoo's various video properties, such as Yahoo Video and Yahoo Music. Users also can embed the clips on their personal Web sites, such as Facebook , using software called widgets.
Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. Generally, in such arrangements, Internet companies share revenue from online advertising with the copyright holders.
Sony BMG, a recording industry powerhouse, is a joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann A.G.
Bruce Springsteen, Christina Aguilera, Foo Fighters, Justin Timberlake and Bob Dylan are among its biggest artists.
The deal marks the first time that Yahoo has been able to license music from a major recording company for its users to upload and edit. But Yahoo, in Sunnyvale, is still playing catch-up to its main competitor because Sony BMG entered into a similar video deal with YouTube last year.
YouTube, a subsidiary of Mountain View's Google, was the most popular video destination in September, with visitors viewing 2.5 billion videos, according to comScore Inc. Yahoo was a distant third, with 381 million videos viewed.
Because of piracy fears, Hollywood has been reluctant to make all of its content available online. Many studios also have criticized Internet companies for failing to do enough to stop the problem, particularly Google, which was sued earlier this year by Viacom for $1 billion over allegations that it failed to adequately remove pirated material from YouTube.
As part of the deal announced Tuesday, Sony BMG's music will only be available through a Yahoo branded video player, because of the copyright protections built into it.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/21/BUG7TG3U0.DTL
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