Venus Theory posted a video showing how broken the music industry is, and Karra recently posted a video confirming how this actually affected her life as a musician.
After watching it, I felt a bit hopeless, so I went online to search for what we can do to protect ourselves, and here’s what I found…
4 THOUGHTS FROM ME
1. “My music was stolen and uploaded by someone else.”
Nothing is worse than sharing your music online, only to discover that someone stole it and posted it as their own.
- Collect all the information you can that proves that the song is yours. You’ll need to prove it’s yours, and videos, pictures, and project dates of your project on your DAW will help you a lot.
- Talk to the person or label that stole your music. Find the email or Instagram of the person and send a polite message explaining the situation and requesting a takedown.
- Contact their distributor. Often, these songs won’t have labels, so reach out to their distributor. The easiest way to find this is by checking the song on YouTube Music, as the distributor is listed publicly.
- Send a copyright infringement notice to Spotify. Using this form, submit a claim to Spotify requesting the song be taken down, explaining the situation. Again, be polite.
- Stay calm and be careful when going online. Going online can help you, especially if you have a community, but being aggressive about it may hurt your image.
2. “Someone uploaded a song to my artist name.“
Different from someone stealing your music, someone can upload a song to your artist profile (since there are no checks from the distributor’s side). So, if that happens:
- Constantly check your artist page on streaming services, especially Spotify. The best way to detect if there’s anything weird happening is by keeping a constant eye on your “Spotify for Artists” page, as unwanted releases will show up there first.
- Submit a claim to Spotify when you see something weird. Go to this form and submit a claim. In addition, send a message to Spotify’s support here to speed up the process.
- Send a message and submit a takedown claim to the distributor. Go to YouTube in your web browser, find the song on YouTube Music, look up the distributor, and message them.
- Trademark your artist name. Companies might require proof that you own the trademark of your artist name, so others can’t use it, so trademarking your name can help you with this process.
3. “My song entered a bot-promoted playlist.“
When your song enters a bot playlist, streaming services might flag your song and take it down.
- Beware of any unusual streaming activity on your artist page on streaming services. When your song enters a bot playlist, you’ll see an irregular spike in plays.
- Contact your label or distributor. Contact your label if you signed the song and ask them to contact their distributor, explaining that this wasn’t intentional (this serves as proof). If self-releasing, contact your distributor by yourself.
- Contact Spotify’s support via your artist page. This will be useful to create proof that you’re not trying to do any wrongdoing.
- Submit a claim on Streaming Services. With a quick online search, you’ll find how to submit a claim to the streaming services when your song is in a bot playlist. Here’s Spotify’s playlist reporter, for example.
- If you receive a ‘strike’, appeal it after the situation is solved. Gather all the proof you have that you didn’t pay for streams, including the claims and emails that I recommended you to send, and submit to your distributor and to Spotify. If successful, they will take down the strike.
4. “Streaming services don’t treat me fairly and pay me almost nothing.”
If you’ve gone through any of these situations, you’re probably fed up and considering not releasing on a particular streaming service that wronged you.
- Be careful not to punish your fans instead. When you take all your songs from Spotify, your fans might lose contact with you. So, make posts on how they can now find you, or simply stop caring about Spotify, leave your music there, but focus on other platforms.
- Find the best strategy to distribute your music. Find a platform that aligns with what you’re willing to put up with as an artist.
- Spread the word. In my opinion, the situation will only change after legislation passes through that helps independent artists to be treated fairly. Spreading the word online and to politicians who can pass legislation can speed up this process.
- Find a distributor that helps you. Look for a distributor that pays you fairly, but also a distributor that has tools to help you in such situations. Avoid subscription-based distributors, if possible.
- Find alternative ways of making money. Start DJing, making content, or offering services. Use your music as a way to promote these alternatives, as they normally pay way more than royalties.
- Self-release and promote your music. The less you rely on labels, the more you’ll gain in royalties. Over time, this will compound and give you a good monthly income (as happened to various friends of mine)
3 QUICK TIPS FOR YOU
What are other music industry problems that you might run into, and how can you solve them?
1. “It all depends on the playlists that I get my songs on…”
Make a list of playlists that you like and submit your song to them, even if paying for it (there’s no problem with this with legit playlists). If these are playlists from artists, become friends with them, as it will be a lot easier to get in touch.
2. “No label even listens to my music…”
Find the right way to send songs to labels, as you might be doing it wrong, or find alternative ways, like collaborating with their current artists. It can also take time for a label to get back to you, so have a list of alternatives and just move on.
3. “AI is going to replace all musicians anyway, so why even make music?”
To express yourself creatively. Also, many labels have already stated they’re against fully AI-generated songs, so there’s no need to worry. Watch this video where I express my thoughts about AI, and just keep making music
