NEW YORK, NY and SAN BRUNO, CA; Oct 09, 2006 — YouTube, Inc., a consumer media company that enables people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, and SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, today announced a deal that will make available a wide variety of video content from the music company’s world-renowned library to the YouTube community. YouTube users will be able to interact with videos from a wide array of SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT artists ranging from the most important recordings in history to today’s hottest young artists.

In addition, SONY BMG and YouTube will work together to develop new and exciting opportunities which allow users to include certain SONY BMG sound recordings in their own uploads, adding to the Internet’s most vibrant video entertainment destination. As a result of this agreement SONY BMG will be able to fully realize the commercial potential of its content. SONY BMG and YouTube will share revenue from advertising on all SONY BMG music videos that incorporate audio and audiovisual works from the vast SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT library.

“SONY BMG, with its dynamic roster of artists and forward-thinking management team, is exactly the type of media company YouTube seeks to partner with in order to provide the most entertaining service to our users,” said Chad Hurley, CEO and Co-Founder of YouTube. “Offering our community exciting and creative new ways to interact with SONY BMG artists’ content is a major step for both companies, not just in terms of financial potential, but because it deepens our community’s relationship with the music it loves.”

“With its trademark blend of music, videos and fan generated content, the YouTube environment represents a fascinating new way to deepen the relationship between our artists and their fans,” commented Thomas Hesse, President, Global Digital Business, SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT. “We are pleased to be working with YouTube on this new initiative that respects the rights of artists and copyright holders, while at the same time making our content commercially available to a broader audience than even before.”

YouTube recently announced a new content identification architecture, intended to help copyright holders identify their content on YouTube. This architecture will provide SONY BMG the opportunity to authorize and monetize the use of their works within the user-generated content on the site. SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT’s music video library and special artist content will be made available simultaneously with launch of this system, set for the end of this year.

SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT will work with artists and rights holders to embrace this new opportunity to reach a tremendous new audience to promote and distribute their music. SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT will also work with YouTube to expeditiously remove certain copyrighted materials which are not available for exhibition on the site.

About SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT is a global recorded music joint venture with a roster of current artists that includes a broad array of both local artists and international superstars, as well as a vast catalog that comprises some of the most important recordings in history. SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT is 50% owned by Bertelsmann A.G. and 50% owned by Sony Corporation of America.

About YouTube

Founded in February 2005, YouTube is a consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, blogs, and e-mail. YouTube currently delivers more than 100 million video views every day with 65,000 new videos uploaded daily and it has quickly become the leading destination on the Internet for video entertainment.

Media Contacts:
John McKay

Sony BMG

212-833-5520

Julie Supan

YouTube