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No. 41AI & Digital
Also called social media licence, platform rights, short-form video rights
Who controls and benefits from licensing your music for use on social media platforms.
Watch closely
Platform licensing deals are negotiated by labels with limited artist visibility into rates or terms.
Social media rights cover platform-specific licences allowing users to include your music in short-form videos, stories, and social posts on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube Shorts, and similar. These platform licensing deals are negotiated by labels (or distributors) with the platforms and generate revenue that flows through standard royalty accounting.
Social media virality is now a primary discovery mechanism. Artists benefit from their music being freely usable on platforms, but the revenue these platform deals generate may be poorly accounted for or retained entirely by the label.
The same clause is drafted three ways. These are the positions we see, worst first, so you can tell at a glance which one is in front of you.
The drafting language and the negotiation moves for this clause are part of the workspace.
You have read what the clause means and where the risk sits. The rest is the side-by-side of how it reads when it is against you and when it is not, plus the specific moves that get it there.