Belgian music fans have double reason to celebrate this week. After Spotify launched there earlier this week, Google has today announced a dedicated version of YouTube for the country.
The arrival of Youtube.be follows a deal with Belgian royalty collection organization SABAM, which represents 36,000 composers, lyricists, publishers, and music video makers. This means these artists will now get paid for streams of their works through YouTube thanks to the service’s Content ID service, which recognizes licensed content in videos uploaded by users.
Artists receive a share of Google’s revenue from ads displayed around their videos. While the per-stream rate may be relatively low, it can add up to an useful source of income. As we reported earlier this week, a British family earned £120,000 ($190,000) in royalties over four years earned when a video of their children went viral.
The dedicated Belgian site follows similar deals across much of the rest of western Europe. Portugal and Germany are notable exceptions, still being redirected to the global YouTube site.
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