Sony Music Group and Universal Music Group have commenced legal proceedings in Canada against the developers of Musi.
Coordinated by IFPI and its national group Music Canada, the action states that Musi is making copyright-protected sound recordings available to the public without authorisation.
It also states that Musi is deliberately circumventing the technical protections put in place by YouTube in order to steal content from the service and therefore denying artists and right-holders income that is legally theirs.
“Musi is a ‘parasitic’ service offering many of the features of licensed music streaming services while relying on unauthorised access to copyright-protected content on third-party platforms,” said a statement from IFPI. “It profits from the content through its own advertising and subscription model, thereby competing unfairly with the legitimate music market.”
Although Musi was removed from Apple’s App Store in September 2024 following complaints from right-holders and YouTube based on copyright infringements and violations of YouTube’s terms of service, the service remains accessible to users who previously downloaded the application.
We are serving notice on parasitic apps, which are designed specifically to exploit artists and their music, and undermine legitimate music services
Victoria Oakley
The legal move comes alongside a call from the recorded music industry for action to tackle the operations and availability of such apps. This includes swifter and more effective action by the app stores facilitating access to these apps to block or remove them.
Victoria Oakley, CEO of IFPI, said: “We are serving notice on parasitic apps, which are designed specifically to exploit artists and their music, and undermine legitimate music services. Musi and similar illegal services have no place in today’s music ecosystem which is built on the premise of empowering innovation through licensing.
“This legal action is an important step, and we hope it will be further supported by effective, direct action from the mobile app stores and the music services being directly exploited by these apps.”
Patrick Rogers, CEO of Music Canada, said: “This litigation sends a clear message that services designed to circumvent platform protections and exploit music without authorisation are not legitimate businesses.
“The industry will continue taking coordinated action to protect artists and fans from unlawful exploitation. Our goal is simple: ensure artists are paid when their music is played – and shutting down parasitic apps is one way to achieve that.”
Music Week has reached out to Musi for comment on the legal action.
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