YouTube’s takeover of the pop music landscape appears to be going global. Music Weekly reported Wednesday that France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (SACEM) and worldwide publishing powerhouse Universal Music Publishing have both reached international agreements with YouTube, the newest power player in the major music market. The agreement allows for YouTube to distribute music published by SACEM and UMP to 127 new countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, a move that will boost YouTube’s musical presence and make it easier for publications like Billboard Magazine, which recently began factoring YouTube plays into its Billboard Hot 100 charts, to better realize what’s popular throughout the world. “SACEM is proud to be the first authors’ society in the world to have signed an agreement of this scale with YouTube, the world’s leading digital platform of music videos,” said SACEM CEO Jean-Noël Tronc.
