MrBeast rants about music labels copyright striking YouTubers, causes intense debate

Jimmy “MrBeast”, perhaps one of the biggest names in YouTube’s history, took to Twitter for an uncharacteristic rant aimed at the music industry. He spoke out about major music labels dropping copyright strikes on YouTubers, potentially ending someone’s career over using music. It led to a pretty hot debate on Twitter, with users both agreeing and vehemently opposing his opinions.

MrBeast had a few things to say about copyright strikes, leading to a fiery debate on Twitter (Image via MrBeast/Twitter)

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MrBeast calls out the music industry about their copyright strikes

Copyrighted music has been used to enhance content on YouTube for years, and it seems like MrBeast thinks it’s just fine. In his recent Twitter rant, he thought it was to the benefit of music labels to have YouTubers use their music.

“A major music label should stop copyright striking YouTubers every opportunity it gets and instead let us use their music and then we YouTubers all rally and get them 10s of billions of impressions on their music for not being c**ts to us. Thoughts?”

Regardless of the size of a channel on YouTube, copyright strikes are a significant issue. Videos get demonetized, and content creators have to take down videos or be punished further for using music they don’t own.

Several of the biggest names on YouTube have dealt with music copyright strike issues in the past. Ludwig is an example of someone who has dealt with copyright strikes on YouTube. PewDiePie and many others deal with it. Whether Twitch or YouTube, streamers and content creators have this problem.

Quite a few people sat on either side of the fence in this particular debate. For every argument for it, there was an opinion opposing it.

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MrBeast’s hot take caused hot debate on Twitter

Not everyone disagreed with Jimmy’s take on music on YouTube. A few musicians and music platforms have stepped up to support the content creator or to simply say “Hi” to Jimmy. Streambeats also permitted other streamers to use their music.

One user on Twitter disagreed. Ross Gerber, a CEO and Investment Advisor, also spoke up as a musician. He pointed out that not all musicians are millionaires, and while MrBeast makes $50M a year, the musicians that enhance his music need to be paid what they’re worth.

Other musicians brought their two cents, saying independent artists are struggling and are quite underpaid. Instead, these larger streamers should pay underground/independent artists to use their music.

A few music producers and websites spoke up to offer copyright-free music that streamers can use.

Quite a few people spoke up in support of the content creator's thoughts. Many think that using music in popular videos on YouTube would likely lead to others picking up that music and that it’s essentially free advertising.

Pyrocynical, a content creator, had some issues with the music industry and spoke up. They paid a music copyright upfront and signed a contract, and this still led to a major delay in their latest video.

DailyDose suggested that streamers could pay $50 to license someone’s music, and YouTube is the only platform that doesn’t allow copyrighted music. Twitch even allows it to some minor degree in live broadcasts - as long as it’s muted after the fact.

Ethan Klein agreed with Jimmy in a very simple “Yes” tweet, which had a few replies that both agreed and disagreed. It’s a very hot topic of discussion.

While Jimmy didn’t respond to many of the complaints or disagreements, it continues to be a pretty hot topic. The content creator wants to have access to music without worrying about copyright strikes, but it is pretty clear that many musicians don’t think “exposure” will pay their bills. It’s unlikely that this debate will be over any time soon.