Testy licensing talks between social media companies and collecting societies are nothing new, but the dispute between TikTok and European licensing hub Ice – founded by PRS for Music, Stim and Gema – was unusual in in that it went to external arbitration. That was in July 2019, when TikTok asked the UK’s Copyright Tribunal to help the pair reach “a reasonable outcome” in licensing talks that had foundered.
Nearly a year and a half later, there’s an outcome to report. “Ice and TikTok announce that they have reached agreement on terms to license the TikTok platform in respect of the musical works represented by the Ice core,” announced a joint statement this morning. “This multi-year deal covers TikTok (and its predecessors) from launch and establishes a flow of royalty payments to songwriters and publishers.”
That’s good news, and represents the latest short-video deal for Ice and the societies it represents, following an agreement with Triller at the start of October. It’s also progress for TikTok, following recent licensing deals with Sony Music, and on the publishing side with the US National Music Publishers Association.
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