Um, why isn't Taylor Swift on TikTok?

Why Isn’t Taylor Swift On TikTok?!

Now you might say, “Hold on a second, I follow Taylor on TikTok...” And yes, we know we know, we follow her too – of course.

But all of her copyrighted music has been removed as of January 31^st (you’ll even see a note about this at the bottom of some of her videos which now devastatingly have no sound). 

Why? Well Universal Music Group or UMG (which represents heaps of talented artists like Taylor Swift and Drake) had an agreement with TikTok.

But when it came time to renew their agreement, UMG accused TikTok of both unfairly compensating its artists and not protecting them against AI that’s been trying to schmooze their music for free.  TikTok on the other hand accused UMG of just wanting bigger profits itself, instead of protecting its artists and songwriters.  

When the two failed to come to an agreement, any copyrighted music from a UMG artist was removed from TikTok.  

This is particularly tricky for musicians as they now can’t promote or share their music on one of the world’s most popular social platforms.  

Why should this matter to you? 

This case highlights the importance of giving proper attention to licensing and copyright laws.  

Now, your company might not be as big as TikTok or UMG (yet!), but by having full-proof contracts and licenses in place now, you can save yourself from costly disputes that are just a bummer to deal with.  

Now this is a bit of a scary one, but we have to ask: do you actually own the shares in your company?! Because 68% of early-stage founders don’t...  

Now a lot of well-meaning founders think that updating Companies House is the same as owning the shares of your business. But, it’s not. 

You can check if you own your shares by seeing if these three things have happened: 

1. 📃You have updated your company share registers.  

2. ✍️ The intended shareholder has been given a share certificate (correctly signed and dated) that sets out the shares they have been issued.  

3. 👨‍💻 You have updated Companies House (the UK registrar) of the share issuance.  

Then – and only then – you can actually own the shares. 

If you build a company – but don't actually own the shares of your company – it’ll be a complete mess when you go for investment or look to be acquired. Seriously; no one will ever buy a company where the share capital is not properly accounted for. So make sure you own your shares! 

March’s MAQ: What is the best legal document(s) for me to use when I go for investment? 

The key here is that the type of investment document you need depends on who you are looking to take investment from. For each stage of your funding journey, there may be different investment documents needed.  

Let’s take a look at two of the most common scenarios:  

1. 😇 UK Angel Investor 
If you’re seeking investment from a UK angel investor, then they’ll probably be wanting some kind of tax relief (whether that is SEIS or EIS relief). To make sure that you can provide this, you’ll probably use an Advance Subscription Agreement or an ASA. 

2. 💼 VC Fund 
Now if you’re going for a big investment from a VC fund, then you would want to ensure your lawyers use BVCA model investment documents. These are long form and very much market standard; your investment agreement would be included in this and your company shareholders' agreement.  

As you can probably tell, these two types of investment documents are very different. An ASA is made for quick, agile investment, while BVCA investment documents are made to be heavily negotiated and entered into by many different parties. 

You may also want to consider a convertible loan note, but this is a whole new topic of conversation we can explore another time!