Close Menu
Technology Mag

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    DJI’s first 360-degree camera can continuously capture 8K footage for over 100 minutes

    July 31, 2025

    How Apple’s New Spotlight Compares to Raycast

    July 31, 2025

    Uber Eats is adding AI to menus, food photos, and reviews

    July 31, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Subscribe
    Technology Mag
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    • Home
    • News
    • Business
    • Games
    • Gear
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Security
    • Trending
    • Press Release
    Technology Mag
    Home » Musi Won Over Millions. Is the Free Music Streaming App Too Good to Be True?
    Business

    Musi Won Over Millions. Is the Free Music Streaming App Too Good to Be True?

    News RoomBy News RoomMay 8, 20243 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Email

    Musi has faced objections to its business practices before. In October 2019, the company filed suit against an online ad network, alleging that it had withheld payments owed for ads that ran within the Musi app. In November that year, the ad network filed a counter-complaint alleging that it stopped payments after discovering Musi’s business was fraudulent. “Musi was knowingly and illegally ripping music off from YouTube,” the counter-complaint said, alleging that when advertisers found out, it lost over $7 million. A judge granted a request from Musi to dismiss the case without prejudice in 2020.

    Cherie Hu, the founder of the music-business research network Water & Music, described Musi’s interface as utilitarian. It’s a place to listen to music and make playlists, and that’s it. Users don’t see song lyrics, information about upcoming concerts, or any features hinting at collaborations or partnerships with artists. “It’s a very generic way of curating and presenting music,” she says. Even after more than a decade in operation, it still feels more like a bright CS student’s senior project rather than a professional product.

    Musi claims not to host the music videos its users stream, instead emphasizing that these videos come from YouTube. Those videos appear within Musi’s own barebones interface, but some flaunt their origins with watermarks from YouTube or Vevo. Users have to sit through video ads right when they open Musi and can then stream uninterrupted audio, but video ads play silently every few songs while the music continues. The app also displays banner ads, but users can remove all ads from the app for a one-time fee of $5.99.

    Unlike its leading competitors, Musi doesn’t offer a download function, so the music stops without access to the internet. “Candidly, this won’t be a feature ever, due to restrictions set in place by YouTube,” a Musi support account told a fan last year who asked on Reddit if an offline mode was coming.

    James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and internet law at Cornell University, says the way Musi operates raises a number of questions. “Is this copyright infringement? A license for YouTube might not be a license to Musi,” he says. “Does this violate YouTube’s terms of service in a way that YouTube could cut it off?” As of now, the answers are unclear.

    One unknown is whether playing a song on Musi will result in the same amount of income for an artist as it would if played directly on YouTube, especially as streaming payouts calculations rely on a variety of factors. The Musi support account on Reddit has told listeners that it does, without providing any further details or evidence. It is also unclear whether a rights holder who wishes to remove their music from Musi would have a clear mechanism to do so without also pulling it from YouTube.

    By tapping into YouTube in this way, Musi appears to have pulled off something remarkable: Building a booming business in streaming music without taking on any of the legwork of striking deals with labels and distributors. That causes David Herlihy, a copyright lawyer and music industry professor at Northeastern University, to describe Musi as a “bottom feeder.” He believes the app has skated by thus far because it’s not technically breaking any laws. “It’s legal,” he says. “They’re linking to YouTube, and YouTube has licenses.”

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleEverything Apple Announced at Today’s iPad Event
    Next Article FTX says most customers will get all their money back

    Related Posts

    Meta’s AI Recruiting Campaign Finds a New Target

    July 30, 2025

    Meta Is Going to Let Job Candidates Use AI During Coding Tests

    July 30, 2025

    The Real Demon Inside ChatGPT

    July 29, 2025

    Programmers Aren’t So Humble Anymore—Maybe Because Nobody Codes in Perl

    July 29, 2025

    60 Italian Mayors Want to Be the Unlikely Solution to Self-Driving Cars in Europe

    July 29, 2025

    Tesla Readies a Taxi Service in San Francisco—but Not With Robotaxis

    July 29, 2025
    Our Picks

    How Apple’s New Spotlight Compares to Raycast

    July 31, 2025

    Uber Eats is adding AI to menus, food photos, and reviews

    July 31, 2025

    Hey Microsoft, is it “Xbox PC” or “Xbox on PC”?

    July 31, 2025

    15% Off Theragun Promo Code for August 2025

    July 31, 2025
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo
    Don't Miss
    News

    Meta is playing the AI game with house money

    By News RoomJuly 30, 2025

    Mark Zuckerberg’s AI hiring spree is costing a lot of money. His investors don’t care.Meta’s…

    Ready or not, age verification is rolling out across the internet

    July 30, 2025

    Dropbox is shutting down its password manager

    July 30, 2025

    Spotify’s terrible privacy settings just leaked Palmer Luckey’s bops and bangers

    July 30, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    © 2025 Technology Mag. All Rights Reserved.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.