SAN FRANCISCO – YouTube on Monday said it is blocking certain copyrighted music videos in Britain until it overcomes an impasse in a licensing deal with the Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS).

"This was a painful decision, and we know the significant disappointment it will cause within the United Kingdom," YouTube director of video partnerships Patrick Walker said in a posting at the popular video-sharing website.

"Our previous license from PRS for Music has expired, and we've been unable so far to come to an agreement to renew it on terms that are economically sustainable for us."

Google-owned YouTube said it continues to negotiate with the PRS, but in the meantime will block premium music videos in Britain "supplied or claimed by record labels."

The amount of money being demanded by PRS for licensing music has jumped and the society wants YouTube to ink a deal without telling the California firm which songs will be included in the license, according to Walker.

"That's like asking a consumer to buy a blank CD without knowing what musicians are on it," Walker wrote.

"The costs are simply prohibitive for us -- under PRS's proposed terms we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback," he added.

YouTube says its relationships with three of the world's four largest record labels remain solid and that it is working on new ways to compensate musicians and others that own songs.

PRS for Music acts as an agent for British songwriters, composers and music publishers by collecting royalties for performances of their works.

"Copyrights in music can get pretty complicated," Walker wrote.

"The visual elements and the sound recording of a music video are typically owned by a record label, while the music and lyrics of the song being performed are owned separately by one or more music publishers."

YouTube contends that it helps music owners sell their tunes by enabling website users to buy and download songs by clicking on-screen icons.

Walker said YouTube tries to allay piracy concerns with Content ID tools to locate copyrighted material at the website.