The original remix of “Minions Bounce” was published by DJ and producer Juan Alcaraz on SoundCloud ten years ago. Since then, it has surpassed 1 million plays on the audio publishing platform, which serves as a niche network and showcase for independent producers.
Another version of the track was chosen by Spanish figure skater Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate for his performance at the Winter Olympics. Since February 6, when a 45-second video was published by the athlete and the Olympic Committee, there have been more than 2.6 million views.
It’s that jump in exposure that Universal Music Group’s James Healy had in mind when confirming a deal that grants athletes access to UMG’s catalog for sports routines. The announcement was made on the 11th, a week after the Spanish athlete almost had his exhibition made impossible due to copyright obstacles.
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The story went viral on social media driven by Sabate’s appeal. Alcaraz, who had already licensed the Minions theme, contacted the athlete to help him resolve the impasse. Pharrell Williams and Universal Studios, who composed some of the music used by the Spaniard, were in the equation.
The Spanish champion is just one of more than 150 million athletes who participate in choreographed sports around the world. For UMG and ClicknClear, a technology platform specializing in rights, this represents a multibillion-dollar demand for music licensing.
The “IOC Social and Digital Media Guidelines Milano Cortina 2026” document allows athletes to share audio and video recordings from competition venues on personal accounts. And the scope of this guideline gained a new dimension.
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The opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Games recorded a 179% increase in social interactions compared to the previous edition, according to data from Comscore. By 2025, ice skating videos had 4.2 billion views, according to Tubular Labs. Figure skating accounted for 2.2 billion of this total and 36.8 million interactions.
What was previously restricted to linear transmission now circulates in cuts, remixes and social videos that exponentially expand the symbolic and commercial value of the performances and the music associated with them.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), for now, is keeping its distance. Asked whether the entity would help finance music royalties, spokesman Mark Adams said at a press conference that the organization passes on around “US$4.6 to 4.7 million per day” to sports federations, and acknowledged that “the situation is not completely equal.”
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It’s a scenario that helps explain Universal’s urgent move supported by ClicknClear. The discussion, however, goes beyond specific licensing, and connects to the transformation of music consumption and the impact of user-generated content and artificial intelligence.
As The Athletic clearly showed, for decades, skaters used mostly instrumental music, especially classical works in the public domain. In 2014, the International Skating Union relaxed the rules and started allowing contemporary music with lyrics. The change expanded the repertoire, but also the legal complexity.
In an interview with The Athletic, Chantal Epp, founder and CEO of ClicknClear, said that “people often find songs on YouTube that are remixes or mash-ups that are not released for use.” And now the problem is compounded by AI-generated music.
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“If an AI platform recreates existing copyrighted lyrics and melodies, there will be problems.”
License, risk and liability
When music plays in the background of a sporting event, the location is usually covered by a public performance license obtained from collective management entities. A choreographed performance, as in figure skating, is classified as a dramatic public performance. This type of use, according to The Athletic, requires specific authorizations that are not automatically granted by federations or organizers.
Reporter Denny Alfonso identified a recurring pattern: Many conflicts arise because athletes submit music too late to obtain the necessary clearances. Depending on the use, she explained, public performance rights, managed by collective management societies in each country, may be required. One license does not automatically cover the others, especially for international events.
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The penalties are significant. In the United States, they can reach US$150,000 per infraction. In Europe, it costs around 50 thousand euros per song and per use, according to Epp.
The agreement between Universal Music Group and ClicknClear seeks to reduce this risk. The platform, which already serves federations such as World Gymnastics and the ISU itself, now offers access to the UMG catalog within a verified licensing environment.
Athletes will be able to license tracks for live competitions and recorded content in sports such as gymnastics, figure skating, artistic swimming, dance, dressage, cheerleading and others.
From scarcity to infinite content
The case of the Spanish skater and the agreement that followed opened up a broader discussion, well articulated by the music newsletter Leveling Up earlier this year. Jimmy, its founder, provoked: what really has value in recorded music today amid the explosion of infinite songs?
At the “dawn of the digital music era”, Jimmy points out, the promise was of democratization. Independent distributors emerged by the dozens.
Spotify alone lists more than 70 approved independent partners. Access was expanded, but the question about the value remained unanswered.
For Jimmy, the next decade will force the industry to distinguish between different layers of music. Sometimes the value is in the song itself, a timeless recording that spans generations. Other times, it’s in the process of creation, in the community built around it, in the learning that occurs along the way. The combination of these elements will vary depending on the use case.
Streaming platforms are already rehearsing this movement with resources aimed at the “consumer-creator”: loops, AI DJs, remixing tools. What is missing, according to the bulletin, is a technical and commercial distinction between “this is creative experimentation” and “this is part of the permanent and monetized catalogue”.
One concrete solution suggested by Jimmy would be to update DDEX, the industry’s metadata infrastructure, to include ethical sourcing and commercial viability requirements. Only when these criteria were met would the launch enter the market layer for public consumption. Otherwise, it would remain in the testing phase, a space for learning and expression, not necessarily for commerce.
In the end, the episode involving the use of a remix in an Olympic presentation is not peripheral, and anticipates a necessary reorganization between sport, music, platforms and rights. In an ecosystem of fragmented media and dominant social video, the challenge is no longer to prevent unauthorized use, but to build a system that distinguishes, at scale, noise from assets and compensates each layer for the value it effectively generates.
