Google, YouTube Get Musical

Search engine powerhouse Google (GOOG Quote) announced deals Monday with music labels Warner Music Group (WMG Quote) and Sony BMG Music Entertainment to distribute their music video content online.

Meanwhile, YouTube, the online video hub rumored to be negotiating a sale to Google, announced similar agreements with Sony BMG and Universal Music Group, along with a revenue-sharing content deal with CBS (CBS Quote).

Through its agreements with the two music companies, Google's users will be able to stream content from the Warner Music and Sony BMG music video collections for free. Google's advertisers will sponsor the music video offerings, and the resulting revenue will be shared by Google and its content partners.

"Our partnership with Google is rooted in the pioneering approach we've used to offer fans more music, while benefiting artists and protecting copyrights," said Warner Music in a press release.

YouTube's deals with Sony BMG and Universal Music will allow the video Web site to make available a variety of music videos. YouTube users also will be able to include certain Sony BMG and Universal Music sound recordings into their uploads.

Universal Music is a unit of Vivendi(V Quote), while Sony BMG is jointly owned by Sony (SNE Quote) and Bertelsmann.

For its part, CBS will distribute short-form video programming from its news, sports and entertainment divisions on YouTube's Web site on a daily basis beginning this month. The two parties will share revenue from the resulting advertising sponsorships of CBS videos.