The majors are suing brands over music in social posts. Who does that for your catalogue?
On 9 October 2026 Warner Music Group sued Luxottica Group, the owner of Ray-Ban and Oakley, and five affiliated companies in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to an announcement by Warner's law firm, reported by Music Business Worldwide, the complaint alleges that the companies used at least 427 Warner recordings and compositions in social media posts without a licence, among them music by Miley Cyrus, Led Zeppelin, Dua Lipa and Fleetwood Mac. These are allegations, and the report records no comment from either company. Warner is suing over its own music. For an artist or rights owner whose music sits outside the majors' catalogues, the question is who does that for them.
The suits and the law so far
Music Business Worldwide describes the suit as the latest in a series Warner has brought against brands. The same report records Warner suing PacSun in December 2025, and Universal Music Group and Concord suing the fashion brand Quince in April 2026 over TikTok posts. In August 2026 Sony Music sued The Kroger Co. and its affiliates.
Where a work was registered first, US law provides statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 for each work, and up to $150,000 where the infringement is wilful (section 504(c) and section 412 of the Copyright Act). The upper figures are ceilings. In May 2026 Warner and the cookie chain Crumbl reached an agreement in principle in an earlier suit, and the terms were not disclosed.
One question has come up more than once: whether a platform's own music licence covers what a brand posts. In 2022 a federal court in Florida granted Universal partial summary judgment on liability against the company behind Bang Energy, over roughly 140 TikTok videos. Music Business Worldwide reports that the judge held the company's belief that TikTok had licensed the music was "at most, relevant to the issue of damages, not to the issue of liability". In July 2025 the shoe retailer DSW asked a court in Ohio to declare that its posts did not infringe, arguing that the music was covered by the labels' licensing deals with the platforms. A judge dismissed the part of that suit aimed at Sony Music in August 2026 on procedural grounds, and Sony and DSW's parent company then reached a settlement in principle, on undisclosed terms. DSW's claims against Universal and BMG were still before the court at the time of that report, and its argument had not been decided.
What we see on other catalogues
On the catalogues we look at, we find businesses using the music in their own posts. It is happening to artists across the spectrum, and the volume has surprised us.
We ran a full sweep on a long-running catalogue with hits going back two decades. We read close to 195,000 videos made with its songs, carrying more than 3.6 billion views. More than 500 businesses and organisations had used the music in their own posts, from beauty and fashion brands to retailers and media companies. We captured the evidence on 569 of those posts the day we found them: the video, the audio, screenshots and the page record. Most of the US businesses we looked at closely used the catalogue more than once. One seller had run two dozen adverts on a single song.
How the majors do it
The major music companies have the infrastructure and the technology to find uses of music in social posts, and the lawyers to enforce copyright. Warner's complaint against Luxottica alleges at least 427 works, and its complaint against PacSun at least 290. Music Business Worldwide reported in August 2026 that Sony's suit against Kroger identifies at least 392 unauthorised uses across the company's brand accounts, and that Sony says it first put Kroger on notice on 30 June 2025, more than a year before it sued. The same report says Sony's lawyers had identified 931 instances of unauthorised use in its 2024 suit against Marriott, which settled on terms that were not made public.
That is what a rights owner should do. But they do it for their own copyrights.
What we built
So we built the technology and set up the counsel to do that for our own catalogues, and we now do that for clients too.
We look across TikTok and Instagram and identify a track from the audio itself, sped-up versions included. We separate posts by businesses from posts by individuals, and we leave fans, creators and personal accounts alone. We hash and date the evidence we capture. Nobody contacts the business until the file is complete, and then specialist music lawyers make the approach.
Finding out costs an owner nothing, and we are only paid from what the work recovers. Our guide sets out each step and what the law allows. If you own or advise a catalogue, you can ask us to check it on our unlicensed social media page.