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Six months of negotiations between Google-owned YouTube and the Performing Rights Society ended with the two parties coming to an arrangement that will restore thousands of music videos to the site.

According to the Telegraph, during March of this year thousands of music videos were pulled from YouTube when negotiations between the two parties broke down.
The deal reached will function until June 2012, and according to the agreement YouTube will pay PRS some multi-millions in pounds. PRS in turn is responsible for paying royalties to songwriters, publishers and composers. The accord involves a lump sum, rather than the standard per-listen/view model of payment.

“This is a landmark deal for a user-generated content site,” said chairman of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, Sarah Rodgers. “Everyone will look now at how this deal works with a lens to how future licensing arrangements should work. We think it’s great news as it’s really important that sites like YouTube are licensed and that creative music is paid for an recognized properly. The deal will bring rewards for our members.”

Chief executive of the Music Publishers Association Stephen Navin said of the deal: “Obviously there has been turbulence in the air between YouTube and the PRS, which is not a good thing for a growing market place. A sensible agreement has now been reached so we, as an industry, can get on with other deals.”

The exact amount settled on between the two parties is not known, and therefore it is impossible to know which side got the better deal. A source for the Telegraph reports that the tight lips behind the agreement is related to Google’s paranoia about attempted deals similar to this one in other countries.