YouTube's latest deals with Sony and Universal will reportedly pave the way for a new music streaming service in 2018

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YouTube's latest deals with Sony and Universal will reportedly pave the way for a new music streaming service in 2018

FILE PHOTO: People attend the YouTube Fanfest in Jakarta, Indonesia, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Beawiharta/File Photo

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  • YouTube's new deals with Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group pave the way for its parent company, Alphabet Inc., to launch a new paid YouTube music streaming service in 2018, Bloomberg reports.
  • YouTube's deals with Sony and Universal, two top music labels, follow a previous agreement signed with Warner Music Group in May
  • The upcoming YouTube streaming service is reportedly referred to internally as 'Remix.'

YouTube has agreed to long-term deals with top music labels Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group in a move that positions YouTube's parent company, Alphabet Inc., to launch a new music streaming service in 2018, Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw reports.

The upcoming paid YouTube streaming service, which Bloomberg earlier reported is internally referred to as Remix, represents Alphabet's latest attempt to compete with music streaming rivals like Spotify and Apple Music.

YouTube's new deals with Sony and Universal, which were reportedly two years in the making, follow a similar long-term deal that YouTube signed with Warner Music Group in May. Combined, the three deals pave the way for the launch of Remix, according to Bloomberg.

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YouTube's agreements with the labels reportedly establish royalty rates for copyrighted music uploaded to YouTube. As a result, the video service will reportedly look to crack down on user uploads of copyrighted music in an effort to increase revenue for music labels, which has long been a point of contention in the industry.

The prospective launch of Remix will be Alphabet's third attempt at entering the music streaming service game.

The company's previous attempts in the field, Google Play Music and YouTube Music Key, did not have the same success as Apple Music and Spotify at getting people to pay for a music subscription service.

Google introduced its Google Play Music streaming service in 2011. YouTube Music Key, launched in 2014, was eventually rolled into YouTube's ad-free, subscription-based video service YouTube Red, which launched in 2016.

Read the full Bloomberg report here.

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