What you need to know about Music Copyrights

Nico Perez is the co-founder and CEO of Mixcloud. He explained why you need to know about Music Copyrights.

Let’s first start with the two underlying pieces of intellectual property that are copyrighted in every song which are the underlying musical composition (also known as a musical work) and the sound recording (also known as a ‘master’). Anyone who wishes to use either of these copyrights from a song needs to license them from the person or entity that owns or controls the rights.

Depending on how you would like to use them, you’ll need a different grant of rights in a license. Some examples of these grants include a grant to publicly perform a sound recording, a grant to record a cover version of a composition and a grant to synchronize a composition to a video and make it available on-demand.

This is only the first level of complexity. The next level arises because of the fragmented international nature of copyrights, and the fact that in each country or jurisdiction, you need to seek different rights from different entities.

This is the foundation of the modern music ecosystem which supports our culture. But not all platforms are behind this. When streamers and DJs are hit by music copyright takedowns on other platforms like Facebook or Twitch, it’s because those platforms have not – for whatever reason – secured the correct music licenses. They are not paying the artists that are being played. With that, keep in mind that it would be next to impossible for an individual DJ to clear the rights needed globally to stream a mix. This is not the fault of artists or labels. It’s up to the platforms. Oftentimes, these platforms encourage DJs and artists to use their platforms despite not having the correct music licenses – all the while hiding in the small print of their terms and conditions that you “should not use copyrighted music.” Many of these platforms are owned by some of the biggest businesses in the world, and yet are still dealing with copyright battles. For example, Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, has recently seen many DMCA takedowns for unlicensed copyrighted music. These huge companies are willing to use music to grow their businesses, but do they genuinely support the music culture if they are not paying royalties to all artists?

If you love music and care about the future of this ecosystem, then it’s up to all of us to choose a streaming platform that does the right thing and supports the culture, said Nico Perez, CEO of Mixcloud.