For universities and college athletics
Sony sued USC over athletics videos. Your teams post the same way.
Athletics departments post hype videos, highlights and recruiting content to music every day. We check your university, athletics and team accounts, and tell you exactly what to fix. Know every post is safe before a label asks.
✓ No logins, just your handles✓ Results in 5 business days✓ Every flag confirmed by a person
The USC case changed the conversation
In March 2025 Sony Music sued the University of Southern California, claiming hundreds of its recordings had been used in social media posts, most of them on athletics accounts. Student newspaper reporting put the claimed damages around $42 million. The case was later settled, but it put every athletics communications office on notice: the hype video culture of college sports is now a legal question.
University athletics departments are some of the busiest video publishers anywhere. A large program runs a main athletics account plus an account for every sport, often more than 20, and many have separate recruiting, facilities and NIL-related accounts. Most of them post hype videos, game-day content, highlights and recruiting edits. Almost all of it is cut to music. And almost all of it promotes the university: tickets, recruiting, donors and brand.
"We're educational" doesn't cover hype videos
Universities sometimes assume educational or nonprofit status protects them. It doesn't help much here. A recruiting edit or a hype video for Saturday's game is promotional, whoever posts it. Educational exceptions in copyright law are narrow, and they don't extend to putting chart songs into marketing videos. Likewise, campus licenses for playing music at games and events cover the venue, not videos posted online.
Where universities usually have exposure
- Sport-specific team accounts, often run by coaches, staff or student workers.
- Recruiting edits made fast, by many different people, with popular songs.
- Game-day footage with stadium music audible.
- Student-athlete content the department reposts or commissions.
- Admissions and university accounts using trending sounds to reach students.
- Years of archived content still public across platforms.
A typical Division I department
Here's a common picture. An athletics department runs a main account and 22 team accounts on Instagram and TikTok. Team accounts are managed by a mix of communications staff, graduate assistants and student workers. Across a season they post around 2,500 videos. The central creative team uses a licensed library for big pieces. Team accounts mostly use trending sounds, because that's what reaches recruits.
When we check, the central accounts are mostly clean and the team accounts carry most of the flags: hype videos with chart songs, recruiting edits, and game-day clips with stadium music audible. That distribution matches what the USC complaint described. It's not a story about one careless person. It's what happens when 20 accounts post to music without a shared rule.
What we check
Send us your athletics and university handles, or just the school name, and we'll find the team accounts. We check every post in the last 90 days, or the full year, and any ads promoting the university. For each video we identify the real song, including songs under "original sound", and whether your use is likely covered. You get one list across every account, marked green (OK to run), yellow (check soon) and red (fix now), with a specific fix for every flag. A trained reviewer confirms every flag before it reaches you.
Who on campus should own this
On most campuses this sits between athletics communications, university marketing and the general counsel's office, and nobody quite owns it. Athletics communications runs the accounts but doesn't negotiate licenses. Marketing has a library subscription but doesn't control team accounts. Counsel hears about it when a letter arrives. A single check gives all three a shared picture: which accounts carry risk, which posts to fix first, and what to put in a policy.
It also gives the department something useful to say upward. Presidents, athletic directors and boards read about cases like USC and ask "could that be us?" A dated check, with what was found and what was fixed, is a far better answer than a guess. It shows the department looked, acted, and set rules for the future.
A practical policy for every team account
Departments that stay clean usually do four things. They give every account access to one licensed music library and require it for anything posted. They keep stadium PA music out of posted clips. They check student-athlete and NIL content before reposting it. And they review the archive, because older content stays public and can still be counted. A short shared policy, plus a regular check, is far cheaper than a claim measured in tens of millions.
The first check starts at $500 and is free if there's nothing to fix. For full-department or multi-year checks, we quote upfront before we start. Your general counsel will want to see the result, and it makes a better first conversation than a letter.
Check your athletics content
Common questions
What was the USC lawsuit about?
In March 2025 Sony Music sued the University of Southern California, claiming hundreds of its recordings were used in social media posts, mostly by USC athletics accounts. Reports put the claimed damages around $42 million. The case was later settled.
We're a nonprofit university. Doesn't educational use cover us?
Not for promotional social media. Hype videos, recruiting content and ticket promotion are marketing, even for a university. Educational exceptions are narrow and don't cover posting chart songs to promote teams.
Do our campus music licenses help?
Campus licenses typically cover playing music at events and venues. They don't automatically cover putting songs into videos posted online.
Student-athletes post team content too. Is that our problem?
Their personal posts are theirs, but anything you repost, commission or boost becomes your content. NIL deals add another layer: check who controls the music in sponsored athlete posts.
Is this legal advice?
No. We tell you what's in your content and how to fix it. For a specific claim, talk to your general counsel.
Related
General information, not legal advice. Platform rules and licenses change; check the current terms or ask your lawyer about your situation. Lawsuit figures are as reported and represent claims, not findings, unless noted.