A recently agreed upon licensing agreement has given the Muzu.tv video site a powerful new ally now that the largest independent music group has agreed to share content with the site.
Merlin, the group behind many popular independent artists, will offer content alongside Universal, Sony, EMI and Warner -- all the companies that currently support Muzu, as the site offers a very fair advertising sharing plan with the Hollywood studios. Furthermore, independent artists are finding new ways to be compensated for music content, but have greatly struggled to make money with music videos.
Muzu offers artists revenue generated from advertising whenever their videos are played through the site, which has made Muzu popular among copyright groups. Muzu reportedly has around 7 million video views per month.
Independent artists hope working with sites such as Muzu will open new doors for them so they are able to offset the cost of making music videos. Each artist will be able to embed the Muzu player into their official web sites and any social networking sites they use, which is an important step in the Web 2.0 world.
Merlin may not be a name you're familiar with, but the likes of Franz Ferdinand, The White Stripes and Radiohead all work with Merlin member labels.
I've had only a limited amount of experience with Muzu in the past, but applaud the site for walking the fine line between offering quality music videos to viewers and making sure the proper organizations are being compensated.
Have you used Muzu before? If so, how was your experience with the site?
