The music industry wants Fortnite to pay royalties for featuring popular songs

Fortnite, which has over 250 million registered users worldwide, hosted the first ever in-game concert with Marshmello back in February, which The Verge reported was "the biggest moment in Fortnite’s history", with 10.7 million people online to watch the concert in-game.

A new report from The Guardian reveals that musicians, songwriters, and composers are looking to use new copyright laws to make money from music featured in online games.

Richard Ashcroft, the chief executive of PRS for Music, believes the European copyright directive passed last month could provide a source of music royalty revenue from online gaming. "We currently license a lot of digital services, like YouTube music, already anyway. It is really important for us to have a level playing field for these services that we don’t yet have licences, such as music used in the massive multiplayer online gaming market, like Fortnite. That is one of the areas we will be looking at. Does that fall within the new provisions of the law? Is that an opportunity [for licensing revenues]? [The new law] clarifies the liability of key technology platforms to pay for their use of copyright material."

Last month Fortnite launched a Weezer puzzle island addition to the game.

The European copywright directive, which was heavily opposed by Google and Facebook, could result in tech companies having to obtain a license from the music industry before posting content online.