BERLIN — YouTube has stopped showing music videos in Germany as a dispute over royalty payments in Europe spreads.
Under the old agreement, Google had agreed to pay a set fee to GEMA for every streamed music video. Neither party would disclose the previous payment amount.
Negotiations on a new agreement broke down after GEMA sought to raise the fee to 1 euro cent (1.3 United States cents) a video and asked Google for a detailed list of which music videos had been viewed.
YouTube, the largest video streaming Web site in the world, has 13 million users in Germany, a spokesman, Henning Dorstewitz, said. Each user watches at least one music video a month on average, so the new cost would add up to payments of more than 1.6 million euros annually.
Mr. Dorstewitz called the payment demanded by GEMA prohibitive.
“Under GEMA’s proposed terms, we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback,” he said.
YouTube began blocking music videos from its site in Britain on March 9, three months after its contract expired with the Performing Rights Society, a British agency representing artists. The British group is seeking 0.22 of a cent for each streamed video from YouTube, far less than what the German group is requesting.
Representatives for the German and British agencies said they had not asked Google to remove the videos.
Mr. Dorstewitz said Google removed the videos to avert any lawsuits from artists.
Bettina Müller, a spokeswoman for GEMA, said her agency, which represents 62,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, needed detailed information on which videos were viewed so it could distribute fees to appropriately.
Other online music video businesses, like MusicLoad, SevenLoad and ClipFish, give GEMA detailed lists on their music video viewership on a regular basis, Ms. Müller said.
“I find it hard to believe that Google is not in a position to do the same thing,” she said.
Jens Thele, the managing director of Kontor Records, a music publisher in Hamburg, said consumers might switch their viewing to illegal Web sites or services where no copyright fees are paid.
“This is really a disaster for everyone involved,” said Mr. Thele, whose company publishes German musicians like Scooter, ATB and Fedde La Grand.
Europe’s system of quasi-official agencies and societies with the power to impose copyright fees is largely absent in the United States, where businesses typically negotiate one-time payments with rights holders.
By contrast, national agencies in Europe are large — GEMA collected 850 million euros in copyright fees last year alone — and relatively opaque, rarely disclosing details on how they distribute the money.
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