Editor Musk had previously made his views on copyright clear, when he tweeted last year, "Current copyright law in general goes absurdly far beyond protecting the original creator," and added, "Overzealous DMCA is a plague on humanity." Will It Impact Music Discovery? There is hardly the first time that the music industry has seen the latest technology as a threat to its bottom line, but it is also worth noting that there were also times that the record labels went to great lengths—some of which were found to be illegal—to get songs played. A case could be made that the music industry could be losing an important promotional tool for music discovery with its lawsuit. "It definitely is. This follows the trend of entrenched entities that are adverse to change," suggested Bruce Barber, professional in residence and the general manager of 88.7 WNHU at the University of New Haven. "The music publishers continue to look for whatever revenue stream that they can find, and this may feel like low-hanging fruit, but they could be missing the forest for the trees," added Barber. Social media continues to be an important promotional component in the digital era, and Barber suggested this could be a watershed moment for the music industry. "The issue is that the publishers are trying to figure this out in real-time, and it could be shortsighted to make an enemy of Twitter," he explained. Other Social Media Services Are Paying Platforms like YouTube have become a revenue stream for music publishers and songwriters, and it was reported that YouTube had paid $6 billion to the music industry in the 12 months from July 2021 to June 2022. Given those numbers, it is easy to see why the music publishers aren't ready to give Twitter a free pass—especially as most of the other social media networks have also made deals with publishers and record labels. "The YouTube model involves an algorithm that ensures the publishers get paid," said Barber. "The other platforms are also paying, but in this lawsuit, the publishers could be doing themselves a disservice. They're potentially going to miss out on a way to reach an audience. In a perfect world, artists would be paid for their creations, but in the digital world we're still just figuring it out." Follow me on