The $1.65 billion price tag that Google paid for YouTube grabbed all the headlines recently - and apparently obscured the fact that three of the world's major music labels also acquired stakes in the video-sharing site as part of the acquisition.

Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Sony and Bertelsmann's jointly owned Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and the Warner Music Group all negotiated seperate stakes in YouTube, which could generate as much as $50 million collectively for the labels, the New York Times reports. Prior to Google's agreement to purchase YouTube last week, the major music labels had made it clear that they were concerned over the amount of copyrighted content available on the video-sharing site, and many analysts wondered whether one or more of the labels may eventually sue YouTube.

Just this week, Universal Music filed lawsuits against video-sharing sites Grouper and Bolt, citing copyright infringements. The labels' deal with YouTube will likely remove the threat of such ligitation.

YouTube, which will serve ads along with the videos as well as upgrade its technology to block the uploading of copyrighted material, will share advertising revenue with the music labels. Whether the labels will be allowed to collect information on which users are uploading copyrighted material remains to be seen.