Brie Bella thought she was simply using a trending song for a 10-second social media Reel. Instead, she ended up getting sued over it and says the whole thing cost her a “big amount of money.”
While speaking on The Nikki & Brie Show with Skylar Grey, the conversation turned to how artists feel about people using their music in social media posts. Brie admitted she sometimes wonders whether musicians actually like it since users aren’t directly paying them every time they pick a song for a Reel.
“So when I’m doing like a Reel or, and I’m picking out a song, I always feel bad that I’m using, like, artist’s music, ’cause it is not like I’m paying for it.”
That’s when someone brought up the fact that Brie had already gotten herself into legal trouble over exactly that. Brie confirmed she had been sued, and apparently it all came down to just 10 seconds of classical music.
“I did get in a lawsuit with someone. Yeah. It was for a ten-second Reel and it was classical music and she put a Bonita in it.”
There was one detail that may have made things more complicated. Brie’s own wine bottle appeared in the Reel, which led to questions about whether the music was being used alongside something she was selling. Brie said that wasn’t what she was doing at all. She happened to be holding a drink and her wine bottle was visible, but she wasn’t actually telling anyone to go out and buy it.
“What was—I wasn’t, like—it was interesting. I was drinking or I was holding a drink, but it was my wine bottle. Uh-huh. But I wasn’t promoting to go buy it. It just happened to be my wine bottle was in this ten-second Reel.”
The lawsuit apparently didn’t even come from the artist. According to Brie, a company had purchased the song and was then looking for people using the music that it could potentially pursue.
“So we got into a—there was a lawsuit, but it wasn’t actually the artist. What happened is this company bought—I guess they’re doing this to a lot of people—will go buy, like, small people’s songs. And what they do is they kinda look to see, like, who they can go then nail with the lawsuit.”
Brie believes she wasn’t the only person who got caught up in this either. She didn’t reveal exactly how much she ultimately paid, but made it clear the number wasn’t small.
“Yeah. So I guess I’m not one—like, I’m not the only one who’s been going through this, but I had to pay a big amount of money.”
The fact that all of this happened over such a tiny piece of music caught everyone off guard. When someone pointed out how crazy it sounded, Brie reminded them just how short the Reel actually was: “For ten seconds.”
That naturally led to a bigger conversation about why anyone would go after someone for using a song on social media in the first place. Skylar felt those posts could actually help artists by putting their music in front of more people.
“To me it’s all about, like, especially because of social media, it’s all about exposure. Exactly. Mm-hmm. And so if somebody’s using your song for something like that, like, it’s only helping the artist get more exposure, in my opinion.”
Brie agreed, and that was part of what made her own experience so confusing. She hadn’t even gone searching for the particular song she used. It was already trending on the platform and was presented as something people could choose for their Reels.
“Like, well, and it was a trending song, which is why I use it. It’s not like something you search for. It’s just like a trending song picked because these people found, like, a loophole and they knew, like, she wouldn’t spend the time to go—”
Brie clearly believes the company knew exactly what it was doing. When the group described the people involved as a “bad group of people,” she didn’t exactly disagree.
“Yeah. Oh, they are bad. Oh, they’re gonna have such bad karma coming from—”
Brie never revealed exactly how big that payment was, but getting hit with a lawsuit over 10 seconds of a song that was already trending on social media clearly left an impression. What started as an ordinary Reel turned into an expensive lesson about just how messy music rights on social media can get.
Would you ever expect using 10 seconds of a trending song in a Reel to lead to a lawsuit? Let us know in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
