Musi has previously faced objections to its business practices. In October 2019, the company filed a lawsuit against an online advertising network, claiming it withheld payments owed for ads that ran on the Musi app. In November of the same year, the advertising network filed a counter-complaint claiming it had stopped payments after discovering that Musi’s business was fraudulent. “Musi knowingly and illegally stole music from YouTube,” the countersuit says, alleging that the company lost over $7 million when advertisers found out. A judge granted a request by 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 where you can listen to music and create playlists, and that’s all. Users will not see song lyrics, information about upcoming concerts, or features that indicate collaborations or partnerships with artists. “It’s a very general way to curate and present music,” she says. Even after more than a decade in operation, it still feels more like a smart CS student’s final project than a professional product.
Musi claims not to host the music videos streamed by its users, but instead emphasizes that these videos come from YouTube. These videos appear in Musi’s own barebones interface, but some flaunt their provenance with watermarks from YouTube or Vevo. Users have to wait for the video ads right when opening Musi and can then stream audio continuously, but the video ads will 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 main competitors, Musi does not offer a download function, so music stops without access to the Internet. “Honestly, this feature will never exist due to the restrictions YouTube has put in place,” a Musi support account told a fan on Reddit last year who asked if an offline mode was coming.
James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and internet law at Cornell University, says the way Musi is proceeding raises a number of questions. “Is this a copyright violation? A license for YouTube may not be a license for music,” he says. “Does this violate YouTube’s terms of service in a way that could result in YouTube blocking usage?” At this time, the answers are unclear.
An unknown is whether playing a song on Musi will result in the same revenue for an artist as playing it directly on YouTube, especially since the calculation of streaming payouts depends on a variety of factors. The Musi support account on Reddit told listeners this without providing any further details or evidence. It’s also unclear whether a rights holder who wants to remove their music from Musi has a clear mechanism to do so without also removing it from YouTube.
By tapping In this way, Musi appears to have accomplished something remarkable: He built a booming music streaming business without having to go through the trouble of signing deals with labels and distributors. This leads David Herlihy, a copyright attorney and music industry professor at Northeastern University, to call Musi a “bottom feeder.” He believes the app has gained traction so far because it doesn’t technically break any laws. “It’s legal,” he says. “They link to YouTube and YouTube has licenses.”