Lately in the past few years there has been a noticeable marked increase in the number of disputes in the music industry which have led to court action in the music industry. Often it can be a he said , she said situation. However it is up to the courts to decide if there is indeed a copyright infringement.

Why Music Copyright Is Important

Music copyright is very important because artists in the music depend on their song being played or streamed to earn royalties from this that go towards their overall pay.

If someone breaks copyright and does not link the song back to the artist or their record label then they are missing out on revenue which they are legally due. Using music without permission is infringing copyright and can lead to a number of issues for both parties overall. One of the most common places where music copyright is detected is on video sharing platform Youtube.

High Profile Cases

As well as copyright infringement relating to the unauthorised use of a song or its lyrics , in addition to this there have been a number of high profile cases in which artists have taken each other to court due to a song being copied or similar to the point it is hard to differentiate the two. One of the highest profile cases has been Katy Perry v Christian Rapper Flame. In this case Katy perry lost and was ordered to pay over 2 million pounds due to the findings of the case.

This case highlights well the issues surrounding the world of music copyright. However despite this case the world of music copyright is still very uncertain and unexplored due to the lack of cases such as this. In this instance it was deemed that the musical melodies were almost identical and that it had effectively been copied by Katy Perry as the other parties song had come out before she released hers.

Is Music Copyright Becoming Too Restrictive?

Some people in the industry and outside of it have argued that music copyright might be becoming too restrictive overall. This is because in theory a child could play a piece on piano and upload it to Youtube without the knowledge they need the licensing for the tune they played as someone may have already produced this music elsewhere in the world.

This could lead to the video being taken down and demonitzied. Furthermore, many songs can be played on the radio and then recorded on a device such as a mobile phone.

There then is a grey area as to whether this would effectively be breaking copyright law. At the moment it seems copyright law predominantly affects larger artists , individuals or organisations. However we could see the law tighten in the future.

Overall Conclusions

In conclusion clearly copyright law within the music industry is still being developed and remains an important issue which concerns artists from around the world. There needs to be an overhaul of the industry to determine how a balance can be struck between fair use and unfair prosecutions.