{"id":2371887,"date":"2026-04-13T21:44:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2371887"},"modified":"2026-04-13T21:44:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:44:36","slug":"justin-biebers-youtube-coachella-set-had-nothing-to-do-with-who-owns-his-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/justin-biebers-youtube-coachella-set-had-nothing-to-do-with-who-owns-his-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Bieber\u2019s YouTube Coachella set had nothing to do with who owns his music"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This past Saturday at the Coachella music festival, Justin Bieber played the first of two headlining sets in a deal reportedly worth $10 million<\/a>. It was his most significant solo performance in years. But Bieber spent some of his time on stage the way many of us do on Saturday nights: on YouTube. For some of the set, Bieber played parts of his older songs right off YouTube from a Mac laptop. Behind him, on the stage\u2019s screen, you could see YouTube\u2019s website as he searched for songs in real time and then put the videos on full-screen while he sang along on stage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m sorry to cut it, but these are little snippets. I just want to see how far back you go,\u201d he tells the crowd at one point. This part of the setlist included early songs like \u201cBaby,\u201d \u201cFavorite Girl,\u201d \u201cThat Should Be Me,\u201d \u201cBeauty and a Beat,\u201d and \u201cNever Say Never.\u201d Bieber, who was discovered thanks to YouTube<\/a>, even showed two<\/a> covers<\/a> of him as a young kid singing the songs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For longtime Bieber fans, the clips were probably a fun trip down memory lane. But according to the Daily Mail<\/em><\/a>, \u201cthe real reason Justin couldn\u2019t play his old music in full has now been revealed, as he sold his entire music catalogue back in December 2022,\u201d speculating that the sale \u201ccould be why he heavily focused on his new music.\u201d (Bieber\u2019s catalog sale to Hipgnosis Song Management, which has since rebranded to Recognition Music Group<\/a>, was announced in 2023).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, based on what experts tell The Verge<\/em>, that isn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe Daily Mail<\/em> is wrong about that,\u201d Daniel J. Schacht, an IP, music, and entertainment attorney, tells The Verge<\/em>. \u201cThe sale of his music catalog did not prevent Bieber from performing his songs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s not how this works,\u201d says James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and information law at Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School. \u201cThat\u2019s not how any of it works.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When Bieber sold his back catalog, Recognition took over publishing copyrights and master recordings, according to The Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a>. But Grimmelmann explains that the \u201crelevant copyright here is the public performance right in the songs.\u201d Those rights are administered by performance rights organizations (PRO), and venues like Coachella will enter into agreements to license an entire repertory from the organizations so that \u201cperformers can then perform any song from the catalog.\u201d While Recognition Music Group may now hold the right to get royalties from those licenses, Bieber \u201cnever needed to own those rights to be able to perform them in any situation covered by PRO licenses.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In theory, perhaps, Bieber and Recognition could have specifically negotiated that he can\u2019t perform his old songs. Schacht, however, notes that \u201ca catalog sale that restricts an artist\u2019s right to perform music would be unprecedented, and the word is that there is no such restriction in Bieber\u2019s deal.\u201d He also points out a more practical consideration: \u201cwhy would the new owner want to stop attention being paid to the original videos and recordings? This seems like a net positive for them, including increased streams of the original works.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A source familiar with the catalog sale also told Billboard<\/em><\/a> that the claim was \u201cnonsense,\u201d saying that \u201cThere are no restrictions on what he can or can\u2019t do in live performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It wasn\u2019t just songs that Bieber played off YouTube, by the way: he and everyone at Coachella also watched a clip of a young Bieber walking into a glass door<\/a>, one where he falls off a stage<\/a>, a recently-infamous clip where he scolds a paparazzi<\/a> for not \u201cclocking\u201d that he\u2019s \u201cstanding on business\u201d, the Deez Nuts video<\/a>, and the double rainbow video<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAlright, I\u2019m getting pulled into the deep dark web,\u201d he said partway through the double rainbow video, getting up from his seat. \u201cWe gotta keep this show going, man. Let\u2019s do this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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