WARNER Music Group Corp said it will remove all its videos and songs from Google Inc's YouTube Website after renegotiations over royalties failed on Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of videos from artists including Madonna and Metallica, as well as content from Warner's music-publishing division, will be taken down, Warner said. Under an agreement reached in September 2006, New York-based Warner received revenue from advertisements and other royalty payments from video streaming.

"We simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide," Warner Music said yesterday in a statement. Warner spokesman Will Tanous declined to comment further.

Warner Music counts on digital revenue to offset Internet piracy and declining demand for CDs. The growth of digital song sales slowed to 28 percent this year compared with 2007's 45-percent jump and a 65-percent rise in 2006, Bloomberg News said.

Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and EMI Group Ltd are in renegotiation talks with YouTube.

Warner Music fell 2 cents to US$3.06 on Friday in New York Stock Exchange and has dropped 50 percent this year. Google fell 11 cents to US$310.17 and has declined 55 percent this year.