Photo Credit: IFPI
Hot on the heels of Music Canada securing a mass court order to block YouTube stream-ripping sites, IFPI takes aim at Musi—after Apple already roughed them up.
Back in June, major labels in Canada secured a major win against stream-ripping sites with a mass court order from the Federal Court of Canada to block sites like Y2Mate, YTMP3, and Savefrom, among others. Now, Music Canada has its sights set on the “parasitic app” Musi—which Apple previously roughed up a bit by booting it from its App Store after a legal row.
IFPI and its member companies, which include the likes of Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, have begun legal proceedings in Canada against the developers of Musi. Musi is a streaming app that sources music content from YouTube without authorization.
The action states that Musi is making copyright-protected sound recordings available to the public without authorization, deliberately circumventing the technical protections put in place by YouTube to steal content from the service.
“We are serving notice on parasitic apps, which are designed specifically to exploit artists and their music and undermine legitimate music services. Musi and similar illegal services have no place in today’s music ecosystem, which is built on the premise of empowering innovation through licensing,” said Victoria Oakley, CEO of IFPI.
“This legal action is an important step, and we hope it will be further supported by effective, direct action from the mobile app stores and the music services being directly exploited by these apps.”
“This litigation sends a clear message that services designed to circumvent platform protections and exploit music without authorization are not legitimate businesses,” added Patrick Rogers, CEO of Music Canada.
“The industry will continue taking coordinated action to protect artists and fans from unlawful exploitation. Our goal is simple: ensure artists are paid when their music is played—and shutting down parasitic apps is one way to achieve that.”
Musi sued Apple in 2024 over Apple’s decision to remove the app from its App Store, but that lawsuit was dismissed earlier this year.