{"id":26678,"date":"2026-11-07T11:35:51","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T11:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interspacemusic.com\/blog\/one-business-two-music-uses-two-enforcement-paths\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T11:35:51","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T11:35:51","slug":"one-business-two-music-uses-two-enforcement-paths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interspacemusic.com\/blog\/one-business-two-music-uses-two-enforcement-paths\/","title":{"rendered":"One Business, Two Music Uses, Two Enforcement Paths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soundtrack estimates that improper music streaming by US businesses leaves $1.4 billion in royalties unpaid each year.<\/a> That figure describes a market-wide licensing gap, not a bill an individual label can send. To act on a business use of its catalogue, a rightsholder first needs to identify what the business did with the music and which claim follows from that use.<\/p>\n

Start with the use, not the estimate<\/h2>\n

A business can put music to work in different ways. Soundtrack\u2019s survey concerns improper streaming by businesses<\/a>, while Sony Music\u2019s lawsuit against Kroger and 17 affiliates alleges unauthorized use of recordings in social media posts.<\/a> A play through a business music service and a recording placed in a post call for different evidence. One inquiry starts with where music was played and how the service accounted for it. The other starts with the post, the recording it contains and the permission claimed for that use.<\/p>\n

That distinction matters when a label reviews a suspected use. A screenshot of a post can identify the account, the recording and the content at issue. It cannot, by itself, establish how music played at a business location was licensed or paid for. Conversely, a service statement may help trace business-service royalties without explaining who authorized a recording in a social post. Treating both as a single pool of \u201cbusiness music\u201d risks sending the right question to the wrong counterparty.<\/p>\n

The $1.4 billion estimate can justify looking for gaps in business licensing. It cannot set a catalogue\u2019s recovery target. A label should work from identifiable uses and its own rights records: which recording is involved, who can authorize that use, what permission exists and what payment record should follow. That turns a broad market estimate into a checkable catalogue question.<\/p>\n

Keep a payment dispute distinct from a permission dispute<\/h2>\n

SoundExchange and Music Choice are disputing business-service royalties and have proposed damages discovery followed by settlement talks.<\/a> Their proposed sequence shows the role of records when a payment amount is contested. The parties would examine information relevant to damages before attempting to settle. A label reviewing its own business-service income should similarly preserve the statements and correspondence that connect a use to an amount paid or disputed.<\/p>\n

The Kroger matter sits at a different point in the process. Kroger and 17 affiliates have moved to dismiss Sony Music\u2019s lawsuit over allegedly unauthorized recordings in social media posts.<\/a> A motion to dismiss challenges the lawsuit; it is not a royalty statement or a finding that a post was licensed. For a label, the immediate task in a comparable situation is to preserve the post and locate the agreement or authorization that covers the recording. Pricing a claim before identifying the permission at issue leaves the central rights question unresolved.<\/p>\n

These proceedings also put different numbers in view. Soundtrack\u2019s annual estimate concerns royalties it says businesses leave unpaid across the United States. Damages discovery in the SoundExchange and Music Choice dispute concerns the amount at issue between those parties. A label\u2019s own claim would have to begin with its own catalogue, rights and records. The same word, \u201croyalties,\u201d does not make those amounts interchangeable.<\/p>\n

Build a separate file for each path<\/h2>\n

An independent label can make a business-use review more useful by sorting each lead before assigning a value to it:<\/p>\n