Google, owners of YouTube, agreed this past week to pay royalties to French singers when their videos and other forms of streaming music appear on the company’s video portal.

According to Google, they will pay royalties to French, Belgian and Luxembourgian artists, but only when views of their materials occur within their own respective countries.

The announcement shouldn’t come as a surprise to industry analysts, since Google first announced they were meeting with SACEM, a French music royalty company back in September. read more