BE CAREFUL OF MUSIC COPYRIGHT! LEARNING FROM THE OLYMPIC ICE SKATING SCANDAL

Heavy Young Heathens, a music group comprised of brothers Robert and Aron Marderosian, plan to sue US Olympic figure skating pair Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier for the use of one of their songs without express licensing permission.

Music licensing is a complex and exhausting part of the music industry. In simplest terms, artists/producers/creators can license their music for use in different forms of media. The most common type of music licensing is “sync licensing,” the sync of music with visual media like TV or film.

It makes sense for artists to be paid if their song is played and exposed to a lot of people. Residual streaming revenue from someone “Shazaming” your song at a football game is not going to help you pay your rent. Licensing is a much more reliable and lucrative source of income in most cases.

Since the Olympics is being broadcasted across the world, it is the ultimate stage for a lot of exposure for your music. But, like with most things music related, nobody understands the nuance of the music business enough to know to do the right thing and pay artists.

I do not personally believe that Knierim and Frazier intended to take advantage of Heavy Young Heathens by playing their music. They probably really liked the song and felt it was perfect for their routine.

However, music is so ingrained in our lives that sometimes we get that someone has got to be paid for their work. I hope they are able to settle this case and it is blown off as an honest mistake.