Taking Plagiarism to a New Level

[mumpcake]

https://www.musicradar.com/news/uk-meta ... other-band

The democracy of access that that internet has brought to music also has its downsides – but the idea of stealing an artist's music to pass off as your own is one few would have seen coming. And it's on the rise. 

In the UK, Watford metal five-piece Assimilate have found themselves in a bizarre and frustrating situation when they reportedly discovered another band trying to pass off their December 2022-released second album Suffer In Silence album as their own work after reuploading it to Spotify. 

“I noticed the album had songs titled very similarly to us and then noticed it was our album slightly slowed down and with the titles slightly changed. It was very strange," singer Jake Aston told the Watford Observer after he was tipped off by a confused friend who also works as a music promoter.

“I was angry. I felt violated that someone had stolen our intellectual property,” he added guitarist Matt Bown, who works as a music West Herts College. He and the band were said to be "absolutely livid" another band - that hasn't been named - would try and pass off their hard work as their own. 

Fortunately the band were able to convince Spotify that they were the injured party. "They were incredibly helpful," adds Jack. "They worked really fast and managed to get it down and contacted the distributor.”

The issue of intellectual property theft on Spotify is becoming an increasingly common issue on Spotify, the band were reportedly told by Spotify's copyright team. Last year synthwave artist Timecop1983 aka Jordy Leenaerts also saw his music taken down as a result of tracks being allegedly taken and used by another artist without permission. 

[vurt]

"who works as a music West Herts College."


nice work if you can get it.

[i need Help]

This apparently happens a lot with demo songs for preset/sample packs.

Was on this livestream and the producer showed a YT strike he got against his own demo song because someone upped it to Spotify. Also said “this is the 3rd time.” Smh.

Time stamp is 1:32:45 but I guess the forum doesn’t support this in the URL:

[Biome_Digital]

This apparently happens a lot with demo songs for preset/sample packs.

Was on this livestream and the producer showed a YT strike he got against his own demo song because someone upped it to Spotify. Also said “this is the 3rd time.” Smh.

Time stamp is 1:32:45 but I guess the forum doesn’t support this in the URL:

Yep, YOUTUBE is a joke. I've had it so much over the years, I have resorted to putting an audio watermark over a lot of our audio demos. I've had to just delete some videos off youtube because of the hassle.

[Constructed Identity]

Nothing new. It was a thing on MP3.com in 2000. "Artist rights" is a misnomer, more like he who can afford a lawyer.

[mumpcake]

This apparently happens a lot with demo songs for preset/sample packs.

Was on this livestream and the producer showed a YT strike he got against his own demo song because someone upped it to Spotify. Also said “this is the 3rd time.” Smh.

Time stamp is 1:32:45 but I guess the forum doesn’t support this in the URL:

So if you are creating demos, you now apparently need to upload them everywhere?

[elxsound]

This apparently happens a lot with demo songs for preset/sample packs.

Was on this livestream and the producer showed a YT strike he got against his own demo song because someone upped it to Spotify. Also said “this is the 3rd time.” Smh.

Time stamp is 1:32:45 but I guess the forum doesn’t support this in the URL:

So if you are creating demos, you now apparently need to upload them everywhere?

I don’t see why you shouldn’t!

When you look at what’s available on Spotify, it’s truly everything. You should definitely consider distributing through Spotify and others.

[i need Help]

That’s actually not too bad an idea. If you get the artist name and track from the stolen demo song I mentioned above and Google it, it’s been removed from Spotify but still exists on other platforms including YT Music.

I guess the point I was focusing on is intentions aside it just sucks this happens in the first place. I’ll save the rant but I just wonder what goes through these ppls heads? Is it stupidity, indifference, a mix of the two?

[vurt]

kinda double edged sword, how many it you had even heard of this band before this? could turn out to be the pivotal moment of their career?

[justin3am]

Yeah, I've had work stolen on a number of occasions. The first time was the worst because it was someone I called a friend at the time. I started looking into my options for protecting myself but soon realized that it would require me to spend time and energy on something that I don't enjoy. So I gave up. People are going to find a way to profit from the work of other and they will figure out how to get around protections more quickly than I can find new protections. I decided it's simply not worth my time to fight against it.

Now, I only learn that someone stole something I made if I get a take down notice on my own material. I keep good records so it's usually pretty easy to prove that I'm the creator but a few years ago I had to take a track down from youtube and couldn't convince them to let me put it back up... it wasn't my best work and I got to keep the enjoyment of making the thing, so it didn't matter much to me.

If folks want to claim my works as theirs, I don't make it difficult. I get what I want from my work before it's released.

That isn't to say that others shouldn't try to protect themselves. Just try not to let it keep you from the enjoyment of making music.