NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) – Sony Music Entertainment (SME), the world’s second-largest record company, has sued Triller, claiming that the video-sharing app has failed to make payments under its licensing deal. Due to the missed payments, SME terminated the agreement, yet alleged Triller continued to use its music without a license. The suit was filed Monday (August 29) in New York City.
The suit claims that Sony Music and Triller entered into a content distribution agreement in September 2016, under which Sony authorized Triller (and its users) to reproduce, distribute and create derivative works of the major music company’s sound recordings, artwork, and metadata.
“Starting in March 2022, Triller failed to make any monthly payments required under the Agreement, totaling millions of dollars. After months of SME requesting that Triller pay its outstanding and overdue fees and near-total radio silence in response, Sony Music notified Triller on July 22, 2022, that it was in material breach of the Agreement.
“After Triller failed to respond, much less cure substantively, its breach of the Agreement by making payment, Sony Music terminated the Agreement on August 8, 2022. In doing so, Sony Music informed Triller that its continued use of Sony Music Content would constitute willful copyright infringement.”
SME is seeking damages for both Triller’s alleged breach of the 2016 agreement plus its “wilful infringement” of Sony’s copyrights since the August 8 contract termination.
Additionally, Sony seeks an injunction to “stop Triller’s massive, willful, and deliberate campaign of infringement of Sony Music’s and [its artists’] valuable sound recordings.”
Triller fell out with Universal Music Group (UMG) in early 2021. UMG said that the digital firm was withholding payments and had failed to negotiate a new licensing deal after a previous short-term license had expired. UMG then announced it was pulling its catalog from the Triller app. However, that didn’t happen, as the two agreed and renewed the licensing agreement in May 2021.
SME’s lawsuit comes in the same month superstar producers Timbaland, and Swizz Beatz announced they were also suing Triller for missing payments. The duo has filed suit for $28M in missing payments after Triller acquired their song battle platform Verzuz in early 2021.
Triller has responded to that lawsuit, saying the missed payments aren’t from last year’s Verzuz deal. The additional payments were due to specific obligations not being met, and “we don’t believe they have met the thresholds for that payment yet, but have been trying to resolve it amicably.”
The company has yet to respond to the SME filing. Triller announced yesterday that it had “completed a substantial pre-public financing in the form of debt and equity.”
“This was an important step for Triller to be properly funded entering the Public Markets,” said Mahi de Silva, CEO, and Chairman of Triller, announcing the raise.
“We are very pleased to have such strong market leaders as investors and look forward to bringing Triller to the world via a Nasdaq listing,” he continued. “If the capital markets continue to be stable, we are targeting an early Q4 public listing. We want to thank our partners, investors, and supporters who, to date, have helped supercharge Triller from a startup in 2019 to a household name today, having raised over 300 million dollars, supporting over 750 million monthly interactions, and over 300 million users across all of its platforms. We have only just begun.”
