Sony Music Group and Universal Music Group have launched legal proceedings in Canada against the developers of Musi, a streaming app that sources music from YouTube without authorization.
The action is coordinated by IFPI, which represents the recorded music industry worldwide, and its Canadian national group Music Canada, both of which announced it on Thursday (August 6).
According to IFPI, the action states that Musi is making copyright-protected sound recordings available to the public without authorization.
It also states that Musi is deliberately circumventing the technical protections that YouTube uses to guard its content, denying artists and rightsholders income.
IFPI has branded Musi a “parasitic” service, saying it mimics licensed streaming platforms while pulling copyright-protected recordings from other services without permission.
The app makes money from that content through its own advertising and subscriptions, IFPI says.
Musi remains accessible to users who previously downloaded the app, however.
Alongside the litigation, IFPI is calling for swifter and more effective action from the app stores to block or remove such services.
“We are serving notice on parasitic apps, which are designed specifically to exploit artists and their music, and undermine legitimate music services.”
Victoria Oakley, IFPI
“We are serving notice on parasitic apps, which are designed specifically to exploit artists and their music, and undermine legitimate music services,” said Victoria Oakley, CEO of IFPI.
“Musi and similar illegal services have no place in today’s music ecosystem which is built on the premise of empowering innovation through licensing. 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.”
Patrick Rogers, Music Canada
“This litigation sends a clear message that services designed to circumvent platform protections and exploit music without authorization are not legitimate businesses,” said 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 does not license music from rightsholders and has not built a catalog of its own, instead routing users to the audio of YouTube videos through its interface, MBW reported in 2024.
A Wiredreport cited by MBW found the Musi app had been downloaded 66 million times since its launch, with 8.5 million downloads in 2023.
A court filing in the Apple dispute cited public reporting that Musi had earned $100 million in advertising revenue between January 2023 and spring 2024.
Musi originally pitched itself as a “startup success story” on the reality show Dragons’ Den, though its legitimacy has been questioned.
Musi sued Apple over the 2024 removal, but a federal judge dismissed the case in March 2026.
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