Elon Musk says Twitter will ‘share income with content material creators’. Will that embody music?

Vital change is afoot at social media big Twitter.

Inside per week of closing his $44 billion acquisition of the corporate, Elon Musk has began implementing a serious overhaul on the platform.

Musk, on October 27, accomplished his go-private takeover of Twitter. He then proceeded to make sweeping adjustments on the firm together with widespread layoffs and the official announcement of a brand new subscription service known as Twitter Blue, which is able to value $7.99 month-to-month, for a verification checkmark and different options.

Twitter’s upcoming adjustments via a music business lens, one of the crucial attention-grabbing updates of all is the information that Musk plans to supply monetization to “content material creators” through a brand new (as-of-yet unspecified) revenue-sharing mannequin.

Musk, in an interview on the Baron Funding Convention on Friday (November 4), stated that he’s contemplating introducing long-form movies on Twitter and permitting creators to monetize their content material — in what may show to be a transfer to problem platforms akin to YouTube that function revenue-sharing fashions for creators.

“We will additionally begin sharing income with content material creators, which is important,” Musk instructed Ron Baron, founder, Chairman and CEO of Baron Capital.

Musk then criticized Twitter’s present incapability to host its personal longer-form movies.

He famous that, to this point, plenty of posts on the platform hyperlink out to YouTube and TikTok as a result of Twitter doesn’t supply customers ample on-platform video lengths to submit their clips.

For content material creators, that in flip means no approach to monetize their movies on Twitter.

“We’re going to change that quickly at Twitter. That’s going to be transformative,” the Tesla and SpaceX founder instructed Baron.

In a tweet following his look on the convention, Musk confirmed that “Twitter may even quickly add [the] potential to connect long-form textual content to tweets, ending the absurdity of notepad screenshots”.

In a follow-up tweet over the weekend, he famous that this shall be “Adopted by creator monetization for all types of content material”.

Musk didn’t elaborate on his revenue-sharing plans for content material creators, nevertheless it may pave the way in which for Twitter to turn into a severe new income supply for music rightsholders, artists, and creators.

Twitter and the music business have lengthy had a fractious relationship, with the platform usually criticized for turning a blind eye to music copyright infringement.

Again in February, the IFPI branded Twitter as “a major concern to the music business”.

“Twitter shops and provides the general public entry to a considerable amount of copyright-protected content material and is a serious platform for distributing infringing music content material, each audio and video,” the IFPI stated in its subsmission to the EU Counterfeit and Piracy Watchlist Session on the time.

Final 12 months, a bipartisan group of over US lawmakers despatched a letter to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who was CEO on the time, demanding the social media platform tackle its lack of music licenses.

In December 2020, the RIAA prompt throughout a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Mental Property listening to that infringement on Twitter equates to “piracy on an industrial huge scale”.

Earlier this 12 months, when information about Musk’s Twitter acquisition began to emerge, Amusica Track Administration CEO Ran Geffen requested in an MBW op/ed if Elon Musk was set to “save the music business”, by democratizing the way in which music is licensed.

It’s honest to say that the prospect of Musk single-handedly ‘saving’ the music business raised just a few bewildered reader responses on the time.

But it’s definitely true that the launch of monetized music content material on Twitter – through the brand new much-debated Twitter Blue subscription mannequin – may present a severe new income stream for music rights-holders amid a difficult wider international financial local weather.

Elon Musk additionally instructed Baron over the weekend that he was bullish about Twitter’s business future, saying it “may very well be one of the crucial beneficial firms on the planet”.

In the meantime, Particulars about Twitter Blue, which is able to value $7.99 per 30 days, have appeared on the Twitter’s app web page on the Apple App Retailer, stating the next:

Beginning immediately, we’re including nice new options to Twitter Blue, and have extra on the way in which quickly.

Get Twitter Blue for $7.99/month when you join now

Blue checkmark: Energy to the folks: Your account will get a blue checkmark, identical to the celebrities, firms, and politicians you already observe.

The replace is obtainable to iOS customers within the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

Twitter additionally hinted at new upcoming options for Twitter Blue subscribers together with diminished advertisements, precedence rating for replies, mentions and searches, and the power to submit longer movies.

The launch of Twitter Blue additionally comes as Musk seeks to weed out spams, bots and trolls on the platform, in addition to organizations that try to control public opinion.

The reply to that problem, in line with Musk, is “to get as many common customers on Twitter to be a subscriber for $8 a month.”

Music Enterprise Worldwide