YouTube Reject Nine Inch Nails Frontman's Claims That Site Is 'Built Off Stolen Content'

Global video-sharing website YouTube has rejected claims made by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor that their site is "built off the back of stolen content", insisting they have paid out billions to the music industry. 

In a recent interview with Billboard, the 51-year-old singer, who has been working with Apple Music, slammed YouTube as "disingenuous".

"It is built on the backs of free, stolen content and that's how they got that big. I think any free-tiered service is not fair," Reznor said.

"It's making their numbers and getting them a big IPO and it is built on the back of my work and that of my peers. That's how I feel about it. Strongly. We're trying to build a platform that provides an alternative — where you can get paid and an artist can control where their [content] goes."

A YouTube spokesperson today responded to Reznor's comments in a statement given to NME.

"The overwhelming majority of labels and publishers have licensing agreements in place with YouTube to leave fan videos up on the platform and earn revenue from them," the statement reads.

"Today the revenue from fan uploaded content accounts for roughly 50% of the music industry's YouTube revenue. Any assertion that this content is largely unlicensed is false."

"To date, we have paid out over $3 billion to the music industry – and that number is growing year on year."