"The statistics of music usage (frequency) is not particularly difficult. The real pain point is that we have counted these data, but there is no way to confirm which copyright party these music come from, because the whole music industry is too opaque for us."
On March 22nd, at the Aauto Quicker Music Copyright Ecology Conference, Yuan Shuai, the director of Aauto Quicker Music, told about the confusion of the short video platform in dealing with music copyright.
Compared with the record industry, which lasted for hundreds of years, the rise of short video and live broadcast platform is only in the last five years, but it has brought great influence on the creation and distribution of music. The industry is still groping for the settlement rules of music copyright and how to protect the rights and interests of creators, such as background music used in live broadcast and short video clips covering songs, which have caused a large number of copyright lawsuits.
The Paper reporter noticed that short video platforms, including Tik Tok and Aauto Quicker, are exploring their own modes of music copyright cooperation. In 2020, Tik Tok reached a copyright cooperation scheme with China Audiovisual Copyright Collective Management Association (Audio Collection Association), while Aauto Quicker, with new music copyright settlement rules, hoped to get tickets for direct dialogue with the industry.
How to settle the music copyright fee? Usage is the core indicator.
At the event site, a person from a record company revealed to a reporter from The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that the company’s music copyright income still mainly comes from the traditional music playing platform, but it is optimistic about the future realization potential of the short video platform, so it came to know the new settlement rules in Aauto Quicker.
It is understood that this is the first time before the implementation of the new Copyright Law on June 1 this year that an Internet platform has proposed a music copyright settlement standard suitable for short video and live broadcast. Yuan Shuai, head of Aauto Quicker Music, said that the core indicator of the copyright settlement policy of Aauto Quicker Music is the usage of songs.
"We will publish data regularly, go online on the open platform of Aauto Quicker musicians, settle all fees in a periodic way, and distribute the fees to copyright owners and musicians." Yuan Shuai said that the information of Aauto Quicker Music Open Platform will include the usage data and settlement amount of music content, which can be directly used for confirmation and settlement. There is no upper limit on the amount of copyright settlement, and there is no arbitrary deduction except legal tax payment.
In the past, there was a copyright settlement scheme for short videos in Aauto Quicker. This new policy also included the copyright settlement of live scenes and songs, and increased the settlement channel for independent musicians. The usage index will be adopted in the copyright settlement of lyrics and songs, and a special bonus plan for lyrics and songs will be set up. The live broadcast scene will be based on the effective times of music playing.
Yuan Shuai told the reporter of The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that this made the new settlement rules more complete in settlement scenarios and coverage of obligees than in the past.
In addition, Aauto Quicker’s settlement rules do not require the copyright owner to give exclusive authorization to Aauto Quicker. Prior to this, according to the person from the record company mentioned above, The Paper reporter revealed that the cooperation mode between Aauto Quicker and it includes both exclusive authorization and non-exclusive authorization.
Yuan Shuai said that the details of these music copyright policies will be adjusted according to the market reflection on the basis of stability.
The background of Aauto Quicker’s announcement of the new music copyright settlement scheme is that the newly revised Copyright Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) will be implemented on June 1st.
Meng Jie, vice president of legal affairs of Aauto Quicker, said that settling the usage fees in the live broadcast scene with the producers of recordings not only meets the requirements of the new Copyright Law, but also can better popularize the new rules and trends of the new Copyright Law to the public.
Regarding the settlement of the copyright of lyrics and songs, Meng Jie explained that in the past, the operation in the industry was to uniformly settle the money to the producers of recordings, and then the producers of recordings settled the money to the rights holders of lyrics and songs. "However, it is possible that the producers of sound recordings do not own the rights of songs and lyrics. On the one hand, it can ease the pressure on the producers of sound recordings to give authorization, on the other hand, it also opens the way for the copyright owners of songs and lyrics to get paid."
Breaking the gap between short video platform and recording industry
How does the music industry accept the exploration of short video platform in music copyright cooperation?
Everyone loves culture media company, which mainly produces music based on short video platform. At the event site, Zhang Zhiyuan, the founder of the company, appealed that short video platform should be compared with music platform in revenue and settlement, so as to realize transparent settlement. "The daily income of the cinema can be seen at the real-time box office. Our music industry can also refer to the film industry, and data transparency and rules are crucial. "
At this time, indicators such as music usage are very important, which requires the platform to be more transparent in data.
For the short video platform, the problem of tracing the copyright of music is the difficulty. Yuan Shuai mentioned that the difficulty of cooperation between Aauto Quicker and the industry is that "the industry won’t tell us who the copyright of this music belongs to", which simply means "I don’t know who to pay the money to", so more copyright owners need to enter the platform cooperation sequence.
Yuan Shuai said that with the release of the copyright cooperation policy and the establishment of deeper cooperation with the industry, it is expected that the "information opacity problem" between the two parties can be solved.
According to Yuan Shuai, up to now, Aauto Quicker has established cooperative relations with hundreds of copyright companies and Aauto Quicker musicians who have taken the initiative to enter the platform, and will continue to expand the scope and scale of cooperation in the future. It is noteworthy that Aauto Quicker’s action bypassed the China Audio-visual Copyright Collective Management Association. Previously, the Audio Collection Association had accused Aauto Quicker of infringement, and the lawsuit between the two parties was under way in the Beijing Internet Court.
"We hope to give the industry a signal that we are willing to pay for genuine music and are willing to cooperate deeply with the industry." Yuan Shuai said that music copyright is the foundation of short video. Apart from copyright cooperation, short video platform will explore more ways of cooperation in song promotion to help musicians accumulate commercial value, increase income and expand exposure.