Kuaishou Issues Music Copyright Settlement Standards for Short Videos and Live Broadcasts
Video company Kuaishou held a music copyright conference in Beijing on Monday, unveiling its music copyright settlement standards for short videos and live broadcast scenes on the platform.
As long as a music fragment is played in short videos and live broadcast scenes on Kuaishou, the company has to pay the music copyright owner according to the settlement standard mentioned above.
The core indicator is the amount of usage. The more times the song is used by users on the platform, the more followers and profits they will gain.
As early as last year, Kuaishou invested one billion yuan to encourage musicians and copyright owners to upload musical works and sign contracts, obtaining copyright shares. According to the newly-published copyright rule, apart from the copyright owners of recording music, Kuaishou needs to pay composers and lyricists. The best ones will be eligible for extra bonuses. In addition to music companies, independent musicians will also be able to enjoy copyright income, while excellent copyright owners may receive an advance payment.
For a long time, the copyright issues associated with background music played in live studios and short videos have remained vague. In the early stage of the short video industry, music copyright owners, including music companies and independent musicians, mostly regarded short video platforms as a channel to expand their influence.
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However, with the rapid rise of the industry, music copyright owners of “background music” ended up not receiving their due benefits.
The tension between music copyright owners and short video platforms is becoming more and more acute. At the beginning of the year, China Audio and Video Copyright Association issued a notice which required Kuaishou to delete 10 thousand videos, stop the infringement, and check the copyrights of the songs involved.
Sun Yue, vice president and Secretary General of the China Copyright Association, said at the conference that it is inevitable for the music industry to protect the legitimate license of commercial music to stimulate the enthusiasm of composers.
Only by allowing high-quality creators to get remuneration through a reasonable distribution mechanism on short video and other platforms can the long-term sustainable development of the digital music industry be guaranteed.
New copyright law will come into effect on June 1 this year. In response, Yuan Shuai, the director of Kuaishou Music, said that Kuaishou decided to design complete, transparent and fair copyright specifications ahead of schedule.
In an interview, Yuan mentioned that music is a key element in encouraging users to create innovative works. Kuaishou has no upper limit on the investment in this area, nor will it deduct anything other than legal tax payment.
In 2 to 3 months, Kuaishou will launch an open platform for all copyright parties and musicians to check data usage and settlements.
Owners of high-ranking songs could probably gain hundreds of thousands of yuan within 2 months.
