For those who use social media you are likely well-aware, especially on TikTok, of the ability to add music to a post, from a catalogue of free music that the platform provides. We’re assuming there is some sort of royalty or licensing deal worked out for that feature. Now, it is free for the average individual user. However, for companies, the normal rules do not apply. In an interesting case, Crumbl Cookie (valued at $2b) made 159 social media posts using well-known songs as background and didn’t pay any commercial license for their use. So they’re getting sued.
The intricate part of this case is that social media is designed to be quick and easy, and tongue and cheek posts get the most views, especially from brands. And platforms make it very easy to use their tools designed for non-commercial use. Crumbl Cookie DEFINITELY should’ve known better, and definitely should’ve paid for the synchronization license, but also, at some level, the platforms should provide brands better tools because we all know their 20-something marketing team, that likely got the job from living on TikTok and other platforms, are not always educated in what a commercial company is and isn’t allowed to do. Buyer be ware, I guess.
PS Gen Ai art “Create a piece of art to represent that Crumbl Cookies illegally used music on social media” brought to you by “What?! They totally have scanned logos bc they got Crumbl’s right” and “generic clipart again?” Kinda yawn.
