More than a thousand pop musicians and groups have signed a letter to the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, complaining that music posted on YouTube "is unfairly siphoning value" away from artists and songwriters.

The musicians, including the likes of Coldplay, ABBA, Lady Gaga and Ed Sheeran, state that YouTube, which is owned by Google, is one of the principal reasons for the growing gap in the numbers of people listening to music and the revenues generated by their tracks.

"The value gap undermines the rights and revenues of those who create, invest in and own music, and distorts the market place," the letter reads.

YouTube says that a significant majority of musicians have signed licensing agreements with it to share a proportion of the revenues generated by the linked advertising on its site and that it has already paid out a total of $3bn to the industry.

A spokesperson from the video streaming platform said that it is "working collaboratively" with the industry to "bring more money to artists."

Despite agreements with YouTube, labels still argue that too many videos using their music without their consent or revenue sharing are still being uploaded.