YouTube to block bands that don’t sign up for its new subscription service

Indie artists such as Adele and Animal Collective could be gone from YouTube “in a matter of days,” Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s head of content and business operations, told the Financial Times.

The Google-owned video service will start blocking content from record labels that have refused to agree to licensing terms for its new music subscription service set to launch later this summer.

The holdouts won’t just be blocked from the new premium service, but from YouTube’s free site too.

Google gave the following statement to Gizmodo:

"Our goal is to continue making YouTube an amazing music experience, both as a global platform for fans and artists to connect, and as a revenue source for the music industry. We’re adding subscription-based features for music on YouTube with this in mind — to bring our music partners new revenue streams in addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars YouTube already generates for them each year. We are excited that hundreds of major and independent labels are already partnering with us."