How TikTok and the music industry are bound to each other as ‘frenemies,’ even as they battle over licensing
On November 17, 2022, Business Insider published an article by Dan Whateley on the state of music licensing in tech, specifically the complicated dynamic between TikTok and the music industry in the realm of licensing. The article quotes Daniel Schacht, Music & Entertainment Chair and IP Co-chair.
In the article, Daniel is quoted around the context of music publishers looking at YouTube as a model for TikTok and taking a similar approach. YouTube used to be protected by the “safe harbor” provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, regularly avoiding liability for hosting unlicensed copyrighted content in its videos. However, YouTube’s relationship with the music labels evolved as it created a different avenue for the labels to collect ad revenue through it’s standalone music-streaming service and short videos.
Excerpted from the article:
“Artists, labels, publishers aren’t happy with the DMCA model of free content,” said Daniel J. Schacht, a music lawyer at the firm Donahue Fitzgerald LLP who represents musicians, music tech companies, and publishers like Wixen Music Publishing. “It’s very normal, especially as an app gets bigger, to demand more of that [revenue] participation, particularly where music is so fundamental to the app.”
Read the full article, How TikTok and the music industry are bound to each other as ‘frenemies,’ even as they battle over licensing.