Los Angles-based Triller has been making a lot of noise this week.
Today for example, we learned that the company has sued Chinese-owned rival TikTok for patent infringement.
This is of course happening amidst the political backlash in the US against TikTok over data security concerns, which is also the reason why, as we found out on Monday, one of TikTok’s biggest stars, Josh Richards, has left the platform to join Triller.
Then came yesterday’s news that Triller is raising between $200m and $300m to fuel its expansion, having hit 50 million monthly active users around the world in June, “surpassing TikTok’s user count when it was sold to ByteDance for $1 billion in 2017″.
After MBW posted the news about Triller’s nine-figure investment, NMPA President & CEO David Israelite, took to Instagram and alluded to the possibility that the platform has not properly licensed all of its music.
MBW subsequently asked the National Music Publishers Association for comment and Israelite told us this:
“Triller’s popularity is largely based on music. It boasts ‘millions of songs at your fingertips,’ however many of those songs have not been properly licensed.
“The pattern of tech platforms asking for forgiveness instead of permission to use songwriter’s work must stop. Triller must legitimize its business by properly licensing all music on its platform.”
“The pattern of tech platforms asking for forgiveness instead of permission to use songwriter’s work must stop.”
David Israelite
The suggestion that Triller has not properly licensed some songs for use on its platform gets a little bit more complicated when you take into account the fact that all three major music companies own stakes in the platform.
MBW also reached out to Triller CEO Mike Lu for comment regarding the company’s licensing arrangements with publishers.
“Triller has agreements with all the major and minor labels and publishers.”
Mike Lu
“Triller has agreements with all the major and minor labels and publishers,” Lu told us.
“This includes Sony, UMG, Believe, Warner Chapple, Believe and Empire among others. It is extremely important to us that we work closely with our music partners and we believe that our platform is integral to both established and emerging artists.
“Triller puts artists and creators first, and our goal is to create an ecosystem where everyone can benefit.”
There are of course a few notable omissions from Lu’s list, so as Israelite’s Instagram post concludes, “Stay Tuned”..Music Business Worldwide
