Kimberly Adams

Music commentators say that Universal Music Group has been just hitting them with a deluge of copyright claims over these short clips of music that they're using in their videos, often just to demonstrate like, hey, we're going to talk about this song.

Here's a clip of it.

And then they end up getting hit with these copyright claims and their videos are taken down or they get flagged by YouTube.

How is that fair?

different from the normal way we use fair use.

Well, and one of the biggest incentives, of course, is always money.

And Universal Music Group has had a similar fight over on TikTok.

And I remember at the time when this first came up and they were pulling all their music off of TikTok, I was like, why would they want to do that?

Why don't they want these kids making videos to all of their songs?

But it turned out well for them.

We've got more music industry insights with Dan Runcie after our break.

We'll be right back.

All right, we are back with Dan Runcie of Trapital.

And Dan, it feels like with all of these different streaming platforms and algorithms that shape what music is popular and when, even bringing back throwbacks and old songs from the past, it makes it even harder for new artists in particular to gain traction.

But also, even established artists are struggling.

Lizzo talked about this on TikTok recently, and here's some of what she said.

Lizzo, I recommend folks go back and watch her whole video because she has some really sharp analysis about what the industry looks like right now.

But what was your take on that?

It's wild.

And I mean, even if you just look at the fact that one of the big songs of the summer ended up being Milkshake simply because of that Gap ad.