{"id":3809,"date":"2025-01-21T22:27:28","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T22:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/artist-partner-group-files-copyright-lawsuit-against-create-music\/"},"modified":"2025-01-21T22:27:28","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T22:27:28","slug":"artist-partner-group-files-copyright-lawsuit-against-create-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/artist-partner-group-files-copyright-lawsuit-against-create-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Partner Group Files Copyright Lawsuit Against Create Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tThe independent label and publishing company Artist Partner Group (APG) sued Create Music Group on Tuesday (Jan. 21), accusing the company of violating copyrights by uploading and monetizing songs it didn\u2019t actually own. APG also accused Create of interfering with its artists\u2019 contracts.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCreate\u2019s \u2018business model\u2019 is to steal the intellectual property and contractual rights of innocent rightsholders,\u201d APG\u2019s attorney writes. <\/p>\n

\n\tAPG\u2019s complaint argues that Create has engaged in several forms of copyright infringement, including by \u201cunlawfully uploading\u201d APG artists\u2019 songs to streaming services\u201d and \u201ccollecting royalties for them\u201d as well as releasing a song called \u201cMontagem Diamante Rosa\u201d \u201cwhich flagrantly copies\u201d another composition that is owned by APG.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe suit also argues that Create approaches acts who have signed with APG and offers them YouTube monetization deals despite the fact that this service is already part of APG\u2019s agreements with its artists. (Recording or publishing agreements typically give an artist\u2019s partner the right to collect royalties across all the different platforms.) \u201cCreate and its subsidiaries wrongfully induced these artists to sign these bogus \u2018contracts\u2019 by falsely asserting that [APG was] purportedly doing a bad job exploiting their works and leaving money on the table (thereby damaging Plaintiffs\u2019 reputation),\u201d according to the complaint. \u201cCreate and its subsidiaries further falsely induced these artists by telling them that these \u2018contracts\u2019 do not violate [APG]\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement, Jeff Movit<\/strong>, head of litigation for Chaudhry Law, said \u201cour complaint demonstrates that APG will aggressively protect its contracts and copyrights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA representative for Create was not immediately available for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCreate was founded in 2015 and built its profile in the music industry through its YouTube royalties collection business. It has also branched out into other areas: Create owns other companies including Label Engine, a distributor; Flighthouse, a TikTok-focused digital media studio; and a majority stake in The Nations, a collection of popular YouTube channels.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile APG\u2019s complaint is multifaceted, part of it focuses on Create\u2019s business practices on YouTube: \u201cCreate and its subsidiaries have falsely filed claims with YouTube in which Defendants baselessly assert that they own rights in sound recordings and musical compositions that third parties have posted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is not the first time that Create\u2019s tactics on the popular video platform have drawn criticism.\u00a0More than 10 executives told Billboard<\/em> in 2022 that they knew of instances where Create claimed YouTube royalties it had no right to, sharing email threads and screenshots to back up their claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an interview at the time, Create co-founder Jonathan Strauss<\/strong> denied these allegations. \u201cWe\u2019ve never been sued by a lawyer or manager for this activity,\u201d he added. \u201cYou would have to think if there was any truly egregious activity they would do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLawsuits are expensive and time-consuming. In October 2023, however, the music management company DigiGlo \u2014 whose clients include the rapper Chief Keef \u2014 sued Create, alleging that it \u201clost out on years of payments for its content monetization\u201d for more than 400 works on YouTube because of Create\u2019s refusal to honor contracts. DigiGlo estimated that it had lost \u201chundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCreate filed a terse answer to DigiGlo\u2019s complaint two months later, denying \u201ceach and every allegation.\u201d The suit is ongoing. (Create also faced a lawsuit from Cinq Music Group in 2022 that revolved around the use of a Shiloh Dynasty sample, though a judge dismissed Cinq\u2019s claims last year.)<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Create has been raising money. In June, the company announced that it had received a $165 million investment from the private equity firm Flexpoint Ford. \u201cFlexpoint\u2019s investment will support our ambitious acquisition strategy,\u201d Strauss said in a statement at the time, and \u201callow us to expand our market presence and create the scale to continue to provide unparalleled services to our clients and partners.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The independent label and publishing company Artist Partner Group (APG) sued Create Music Group on Tuesday (Jan. 21), accusing the company of violating copyrights by uploading and monetizing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[407,429,216,297,1126,303,593,653],"class_list":["post-3809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-artist","tag-copyright","tag-create","tag-files","tag-group","tag-lawsuit","tag-music","tag-partner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}