That sounds like a fundamental disagreement about how much video-wrapped audio streaming is worth (with Google saying enough people will pay to avoid the extra overhead/complexity and the labels thinking that people will walk many miles to save a few bucks). That sounds like a plausible place for negotiations to break down.
I suspect Google is right today (at least for the many people who care about mobile music, since the data and/or storage costs would be prohibitive now), but I can also see how a label might not want to set too generous a precedent for tomorrow (on the assumption that bandwidth and storage might become abundant enough sooner than they're comfortable with).
A lot of people are already using YouTube as a free streaming service, and even though artist can monetize their music, the payout is significantly lower than from pure music streaming services. This is seen as a fair tradeoff seeing as YouTube is also a great promotional channel, but Google are now trying to pivot it into a pure streaming service without significantly changing payouts.
It sets a very dangerous precedent for the value of music, which can be incredibly damaging for already struggling indie artists (not so much for the three majors who have received _massive_ advances)
I suspect Google is right today (at least for the many people who care about mobile music, since the data and/or storage costs would be prohibitive now), but I can also see how a label might not want to set too generous a precedent for tomorrow (on the assumption that bandwidth and storage might become abundant enough sooner than they're comfortable with).