Twitter’s UGC May Be The Key To Music’s Next Licensing Battle

Like most industries, the music industry has seen user-generated content to be a double-edged sword. UGC helps a video (and therefore a song) go viral and generate additional revenue. On the other hand, this is a form of piracy and uses resources to protect. Fortunately, major social platforms often have a built-in process to deal with unlicensed UGC outside of Twitter.

Most people think of Twitter as a text-only format, but the truth is that the video is also available on the platform. Its usage is increasing, and with that comes all the problems that come with UGC and unlicensed material, especially music.

A Bigger Problem Than You Think

According to BillboardMitch Glazier, president and CEO of RIAA, stated before a Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee in December that music rights holders had posted Twitter notifications of more than 3 million violations of more than 20,000 records over the past two years (Twitter notes that this is far less) . Normally this means a standard Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice will be issued, but Twitter that is all causing the media to be hidden.

Understand that Twitter, as with YouTube and Facebook’s Content ID and Rights Manager systems, has no way to automatically eliminate potential violations; This means that each record label must allocate more resources to find potential infringers on Twitter than any other platform. . As a result, the RIAA asked Twitter to access its API (application programming interface) to make these searches more efficient. Twitter told them it would cost $ 100,000 a year to do this.

The organization is unlikely to pay, as doing so will set a precedent that can be very costly to the industry. Imagine that other social platforms are starting to charge for DMCA takedown notices. Talk about an unused source of income. It can also have positive side effects to mitigate some of the takedown abuse that currently exists. But that’s not the point.

Stealth Strategy

The thing is, Twitter may just be looking for a cheaper place in the music business. He has not signed any music licensing agreements and hates doing this as he still has a small percentage of the music and / or video business on the platform. By lowering the API fee for less pressure to license its music, it could throw a bone on the music industry and strengthen takedown measures. $ 100,000 is peanuts alongside the millions that cost a license, but that’s how the negotiations go. Give some, maybe earn a lot.

However, video is a growing area of ​​the platform and one that the company might decide to take advantage of in the future to increase the number of users that are somewhat sluggish. This is still a long take as there are many other platforms dominated by music. TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and to a lesser extent Facebook come to mind.

Dealing with water while keeping tags at bay may ultimately be the best approach for Twitter. He absolutely does not want it and most cannot pay for expensive music licenses, and developing a content description system will likely be an expensive add-on. The music industry may allow many infringement issues to be eliminated with licensing, but with no deals being made, the Twitter landscape is taking shape as the new battlefield.