Read on Twitter
THREAD: An Indian Short Video Service to Replace #TikTok: I have seen many comments about how it is time for an Indian short video sharing service on the lines of #TikTok.Can someone just put up a slick App,and let users run with their wild imagination. Is it that easy?1/n
ANSWER:NO. We firstly need to understand how short video services like #TikTok work. The magic words here, which the music industry and artistes/ songwriters loves, is “Synch License” & “Publishing License” 2/n
Any short video service needs two things (1) a back-end Sound-Recording library or what is called “Audio Library” and (2) crazy users who are game to make a spectacle of themselves who will synch this music with their videos 3/n
This Audio Library is provided by the Service & not users. Because this music is not User Generated Content, the service can not claim the “safe harbour” fir intermediaries (basically the “don’t-blame-me-blame-the-user-as-long-as-I-remove-the-content-when-you complain rule”). 4/n
This means that the service/ platform needs to clear Sound Recording licenses (aka Master Licenses) i.e. the “Synch Right” from music labels. In ADDITION, the service will need “Publishing Rights” licenses for exploitation of the underlying lyrics and music compositions. 5/n
Complicated much? Not really- So! a Synch license from a Music Label (for ‘synching’ a pre-existing audio track from the Audio Library with a video made by a user) 6/n
AND (you thought that was it?
) a Publishing Rights + Mechanical Rights license from a Music Publisher or a Copyright Society for clearing the streaming and reproduction/ storage of underlying works.7/n
) a Publishing Rights + Mechanical Rights license from a Music Publisher or a Copyright Society for clearing the streaming and reproduction/ storage of underlying works.7/n
Before it became “TikTok”, the service was known http://Musical.ly which was an erstwhile US platform absorbed by Bytedance, the owner of TikTok. It emerged as we know, from China where it is known as Douyin.8/n
The service had already scaled tremendously in China, where well, let’s just say at that time Music licensing wasn’t at that time a structured business requirement 9/n
TikTok’s foray in the rest of the world was massively disruptive given its short video format- insanely attractive to the younger generation. The service’s huge scale and valuation achieved in China helped power it elsewhere. https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1035246 10/n
This scale allowed Bytedance to meet its new challenge in the west ie, Music Licenses without which, TikTok would’ve faced major litigation in the US & elsewhere jeopardising its short video format. https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/tiktok-video-app-growth-867587/amp/ 11/n
So- currently- per reports in the press -TikTok has more than 8,000 licensing deals, most of them inherited from the absorption of its former competitor http://Musical.ly . This has not been easy- https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.klemchuk.com/ip-law-trends/tiktok-app-navigating-copyright-laws%3fformat=amp 12/n
Music licensing values clearly escalate as the reach of the service expands because artists and music business must be compensated fairly- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-06/record-labels-said-to-demand-more-money-for-songs-on-tiktok- 13/n
This became an issue in China as well, resolved with - wait for it- music license deals - https://technode.com/2020/01/13/bytedance-and-tencent-reach-music-licensing-deal-report/ 14/n
So-any Indian short video service would need to navigate copyright law, negotiate music licenses and with growth each year (ie scale without revenue) consider the prospect of increasing license fees with each year. If you ask me-my money is on Facebook or Google in this game. END
