These major labels criticize Elon Musk’s social network for never having signed a revenue sharing agreement for the use of millions of songs on the platform.
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The biggest music labels are claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid rights from Twitter, accusing the social network of not having done enough against the undue use of songs on its platform.
A “slowness” pointed out
“Twitter is the only major social network that has always categorically refused to make agreements to use millions of songs”, commented David Israelite, CEO of the American Music Publishers Association (NMPA), in a reaction sent to AFP. According to him, the leaders of the blue bird group “are well aware that music is posted, played and listened to by millions of people every day on its platform”.
Publishers denounce Twitter’s slowness to remove music content posted without permission, with delays reaching “often weeks”, “sometimes more”, according to a document filed Wednesday, June 14, 2023 in federal court in Nashville, Tennessee. At the same time, the company uses this content to attract Internet users and monetizes tweets including music through advertising, argue the labels, including Universal, Sony or Warner.
Hundreds of millions of dollars
They are asking the courts to order Twitter to stop these practices and to pay 150,000 dollars for each piece used without authorization. Thousands of tweets having been noted by the publishers, the bill could potentially amount to several hundred million dollars.
Twitter no longer has a press service and responded to an AFP request with a turd emoji. The other major social networks, from Snapchat to YouTube, have all entered into revenue-sharing agreements with music publishers that allow Internet users to use songs in their videos or messages without exposing themselves to having them removed from the considered platform.