YouTube loses its music product manager, time to regroup?

It’s fair to say that YouTube’s path to launching an on-demand music service has not been a smooth one. 

Back in April an unnamed executive told Billboard that YouTube’s music service was being delayed to later in the year because the product wasn’t ready yet. 

Then, in June, the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) went public detailing its disappointment with the sub-par deal offered by the YouTube to independent labels. 

Following that initial statement YouTube company executives were quoted stating that they would “block” independent artist videos if the labels don’t sign the new agreement, only for the company to confusingly backtrack later on stating those executives’  words had been taken out of context but without offering a real notion of what would happen to labels that do not sign the deal.

This led IMPALA to file a complaint against Google with the European Commission for abuse of a dominant position in its negotiations, which will almost certainly prompt a deeper investigation into YouTube’s practices. In addition, the potential intersection and interaction of YouTube’s on-demand music service with Google’s existing Google Play Music All Access service continues to be unclear.

Yesterday, YouTube’s product manager for music Chris LaRosa, who had played a key part in building the music side of the service, left to join a small startup. In any other context the departure would have been seen as just a normal day-to-day staff reshuffle, but one has to wonder whether the ongoing issues contributed to his exit.

YouTube maintains that the departure of LaRosa will not affect its product plans since there are a number of senior members of the music team who can take on his responsibilities, and for now the music team will report to LaRosa’s superior, Shiva Rajamaran, who is YouTube’s director of product management.

In spite the confusion generated in the lead-up to the launch of the service it is at least refreshing to see Google suffer from the same issues that plague any other large multi-national corporation like miscommunication between departments and lack of a cohesive voice. 

Hopefully for Google - but also for the thousands of musicians who are unclear on where they stand once the new service goes live - the company will be able to regroup and re-focus the efforts of its multiple music teams in a more cohesive way to present a strong product that can capture mainstream consumers whilst adequately compensating artists and songwriters for their work.

(Andrea Leonelli)