What's new

How to report/deal with copying and commercial release of music?

Jazzaria

Fresh Libre Music
So, disclosure - this isn't my day job. But in an odd way I feel like I've "made it", as one of my more popular tracks was blatantly copied (i.e. the full audio, not a cover), sped up ~20%, and (re)released commercially (Spotify, YouTube, etc.). They kept the track name the same, and just put a different artist name on it (and didn't credit me whatsoever) - and they've actually uploaded it several times to YouTube with different video images.

I only discovered this because they kept the track name identical, which is also the main thing that bothers me (it's starting to edge out my track in search results). I'm not linking it because their copy doesn't have too many listens just yet, and I'd prefer to keep it that way, and my question is fairly independent of the specific track/their likely fake name.

And that question is - what's the best way to deal with this? Ideally I'd like to get them flagged across the board somehow, but since I'm just a small fish I'm assuming I have to play whack-a-mole and report them individually to YouTube, Spotify, etc. And, since as I said this isn't my day job, "hire a lawyer" isn't a great solution for me, as that'll rapidly outstrip my commercial gain from this track.

Any suggestions, experiences here? I'm very clearly in the right (my track was released several years prior to their copy and is on all the major commercial outlets as well as Bandcamp, Jamendo, and my own site), but I know that the system doesn't make it easy for small players. Again, my real issue is that it's even the same name so it's potentially beating me in search results for my own music - but if I can get an obvious music-thief shut down (as I'm sure I'm not the only victim), that'd be great.
 
Last edited:
The story gets more interesting - I contacted the distributor listed on one of the YouTube videos, and they responded saying the release wasn't in their database and they didn't actually distribute it. I'm pressing a bit, as they could just be mistaken - but if they're not, that means this "artist" somehow spoofed distribution as well as ripped off the music.

I'll update as I learn more, and still welcome suggestions. It does look like I'll have to try to contact individual outlets (YouTube, Spotify, etc.), so if anyone has tips on which contact form to use and how to phrase things to actually get a response, I'm all ears :)
 
i think the best course of action will be to contact individual services, even if it's quite a hassle. at least the main ones.
just make sure you have the project files etc, just in case you might need to prove that it's your song.
 
Top Bottom