At last! It looks like YouTube want to rectify their damaged relationship with the music industry with a new paid service for music.

YouTube have long been criticised for their extremely low payouts on music which is a fraction of the amount even free streamers pay. YouTube look to finally patch things up with a subscription service launching next year.

People close to the matter say that YouTube have already signed Warner Music Group on-board for the service. The sources say that the 2 other major labels, Sony and Universal music, are both in discussions with YouTube as well as Merlin which represents a bunch of independent artists.

The paid service will create a sustainable income for music on YouTube, where millions flock every day to listen to music. The issue is that whilst streaming services focused on music like Spotify and Apple music have been able to create profit in the industry for the first time in years, YouTube’s platform is based around video and therefore the music on the site gets lumped in. YouTube pay out about $0.0006 per stream compared to Spotify who pay $0.0038 and the highest being Napster who pay $0.0167.

The new service is being referred to as Remix and will offer streaming options similar to Spotify with video elements taken from YouTube. According to the sources who have revealed the story

Google do already have their own streaming service in Google Play Music which for whatever reason has never been worked into YouTube, as their payout is one of the best. In 2014 YouTube launched Music Key, which allowed subscribers to watch music videos ad-free but that blended into YouTube Red which was packaged alongside Google Play Music. But again, music on YouTube remained at video value.

According to the sources revealing the service, YouTube have been trying to work a deal with the major labels for over a year. YouTube are also trying to get artists involved to help promote the new service. YouTube will have to deal with a closing contract with Vevo next year, the major label owned music video service.

Former Warner Music executive Lyor Cohen is clearly taking YouTube to task in improving their relationship with music. Do you think this new service will be enough?