Unleashing the Reality of Social Media and Music

Reeling these days? Look at it with the Reel-ality now.

With 201 Million users, India is at the top of Insta’s audience size as of October, 2021 which was triggered by the Tik Tok ban. It was just a couple of years back that Instagram offered a catalog of songs to be used in reels and now it is a global trend, enabling users to express themselves in a better fashion. Before delving into the free music on reels, let’s understand what a song is.

A song comprises three major components – the sound recording, literary work (lyrics) and musical work (musical composition). Each of these components qualify as “works” under the Copyright Act, 1957, and a copyright subsists in each component under the Act.

Free Music on Social Media- A Myth

It is a myth that social media apps like – Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram, Monj, Mitron, etc. have music for free and there is a notion that upto some seconds the music you use on your reels, stories, shorts, etc are free or that no requisite permission is required for the same.

The reality remains that no piece of music comes for free. While we glee over the “free” wide selection of music available on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and the likes, here’s the real “deal” behind it. For every reel/story/ shorts, these apps strike a deal with music label companies to obtain their permission to use their music by way of licensing.

Music License?

There are different types of licenses, that are required when it comes to obtaining permission to use a song. These licenses are needed from the copyright owner of the sound recording and/or from the owner of the underlying work i.e., literary or musical work. The license for the sound recording can be obtained from the music label and for the literary or musical work from copyright society if they are members of it.

Insta’s Terms on Brands

While the songs are free for Insta’s users, this feature is not extended to brands for its marketing or advertising. Thus, whenever a brand uses song on reels for promotional/advertising purposes, the Content Management System on Instagram matches it against the song and notifies to the owner of the song (music label). The music label, has an option to either; (i) may request such Brand to seek a separate license for their usage on reels or (ii) or may block or take down the content/reel as this amounts to infringement of copyright in the song.

Royalty

The Calculation of royalty causes a considerable confusion. In the scheme of copyright law there is no clear indication as to what the performers are entitled to, however Sections 18 and 19 of the Act grant a right to royalties to the authors of the underlying works and sound recordings for the utilization of such works.

In regards to the payment of royalty to the authors of the underlying works are concerned the Act states that the “royalties to be shared on an equal basis with the assignee of copyright”. For example, Everytime a song is streamed or aired, it amounts to a utilization of the works and the royalty gets accrued to owners of sound recording (music labels) and authors of the underlying works (lyricists and music composers) which is distributed equally.