MBW Views is a series of op-eds from eminent music industry people… with something to say. The following MBW op/ed comes from the CEO of Merlin, Charlie Lexton.
Lexton’s comments add to an ongoing debate around ‘manipulated’ (i.e. sped up, slowed down, or otherwise remixed) versions of hit songs appearing on streaming platforms/social media, often with the root copyright holder uncredited and/or unpaid.
This topic was at the center of a recently settled lawsuit between Universal Music Group and Believe/TuneCore in the US. Elsewhere, TikTok’s distribution platform, SoundOn, announced earlier this month that it would be cracking down on unauthorized ‘manipulated’ uploads by deploying a new copyright detection service from ACRCloud.
As Lexton mentions below, TikTok ended its licensing agreement with Merlin in 2024, opting instead to strike direct deals with individual Merlin members. At the time, the ByteDance platform cited concerns about significant volumes of manipulated versions of existing recordings being uploaded by certain Merlin-repped parties to the platform.
“We believe that we will have better control over the catalogs of music being uploaded by Merlin members if we do direct deals, rather than one big aggregate deal,” a TikTok rep told us in October 2024. “In the past we’ve had issues with some of the music that comes through that aggregate deal, in terms of fraudulent behavior.”
Over to Charlie…
In October 2024, after being in business with us for over five years, TikTok stopped licensing rights from Merlin and decided to deal directly with our member companies instead.
There was a lot of talk in the industry following that decision – talk focused on artificial activity, content integrity, and the various ways ‘bad actors’ attempt to game the system.
There are two things I want to address on that.
First, our differences with TikTok were commercial – and ultimately about whether they appropriately valued the music we represent.
Second, the music industry does have an issue with artificial activity and the misdirection of royalties, and like all of our peers Merlin has not been immune to it.
Merlin’s agreement with TikTok expired on 31 October 2024, but our response to these problems did not begin that Halloween. By that time, we were already years into fighting this battle on a daily basis.
“First, our differences with TikTok were commercial – and ultimately about whether they appropriately valued the music we represent. Second, the music industry does have an issue with artificial activity and the misdirection of royalties, and like all of our peers Merlin has not been immune to it.”
We had long recognized that the problem for us had metastasized from artificial streaming on paid subscription services, which affects the destination of royalties across the industry, to abuse on platforms from whom Merlin receives a flat fee – affecting the allocation of royalties between our members.
We take all fraud extremely seriously; by the time we parted ways with TikTok, we were actually begging them to work more closely with us to address these exact problems. For me, that topic – collaboration – is the core issue. Merlin puts enormous effort and resources into combating all forms of illicit activity, but this is an industry-wide issue and no single company can solve it on their own. Operating in silos simply doesn’t work.
We are proud of the steps we have taken at Merlin. We have a highly capable content integrity team and have transitioned from a reactive stance to a much more proactive, increasingly automated operation.
We are building a database to aggregate cross-platform data and automatically flag the risk of illegitimate activity before it can scale. We also enforce a high barrier to entry for Merlin membership and haven’t hesitated to remove companies that don’t adhere to our core values.
Crucially, our actions have financial teeth. Over the last two years, we have worked with our members to successfully recover and reallocate more than $20 million in royalties, taking that money out of the hands of bad actors and putting it back into the pockets of deserving, legitimate artists and labels.
Over the last two years, we have worked with our members to successfully recover and reallocate more than $20 million in royalties, taking that money out of the hands of bad actors and putting it back into the pockets of legitimate artists and labels.”
Despite this progress, the wider industry could do better on this problem if we shared the responsibility more effectively. There is highly effective work being done; our DSP partners do a great job identifying and excluding artificial streaming from royalty reporting. They diligently uncover new manipulation methods, and move to shut them down. But so much of what we and they do is reactive.
Having spent years reacting, we want to see this work becoming much more proactive.
So, I will repeat publicly what I have said to partners in private many times: help us help you. If a DSP can identify that content doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, why allow it to go live in the first place? And if you know how your platform is being gamed, trust us with that knowledge so we can work to stop the problem at source.
This problem is not going to magically disappear, but it’s a cost of success. There would be no streaming fraud and no industrial-scale delivery of generic, synthetic content if there were not substantial amounts of money at stake. Fraud, like water, will always find a crack.
We accept that we may never entirely eradicate illegitimate activity – but that will not prevent us from fighting it relentlessly. We will continue to invest in this area and we will continue to push our partners on all sides of the industry to work with us as openly and proactively as possible.
Only through shared responsibility can we ensure that genuine, hardworking artists and labels are properly rewarded for their talents.
And if TikTok wants to take advantage of what we have to offer, our door remains open.Music Business Worldwide
