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I sell a lot of my music to the public on iTunes, Amazon etc. Actually make more this way per month than licensing…hoping that changes! Anyway, all it takes is a simple Google search for my tracks and I see them showing up on oddball download sites. Gosh, I’m flattered they like my tunes but is there a way to combat this?
Anyone who sells music to the public via iTunes, cdbaby, etc is going to face this.
Many of these sites operate in countries with “flexible” attitudes toward IP rights. More or less,the only thing that you can do is send out DMCA take-down notices (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), and hope for the best.
1) Do a “who-is” search to identify the owner of the domain that is selling you music, and its hosting company.
2) Do an Internet search for DMCA take down notices. You should find instructions and a basic format.
3) Follow all of the instructions, gather your proofs and send out the notices to the appropriate parties.
There was some brief discussion of me doing this at a discount rate as part of a subscription, or similar plan. After giving it some thought, it wouldn’t be cost effective, because it will easily take several hours to do the detective work, draft the notices and assemble the proofs.
This can also be part of the procedure for removing videos from YT that use your music illegally, if YT doesn’t cooperate upon first notice.
There are some inexpensive on-line DIY services, if you have the time.
Good luck.
_Michael
But…maybe it will all go away.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/02/will-2015-be-the-year-piracy-dies/
I think the ubiquity of the the internet will put an end to or at least dramatically reduce illegal downloading. But this will not help musicians to sell more music. They will just have their music streamed via laptops, tablets, and phones instead of having mp3s traded on torrent sites.
Even though piracy of music will decrease, sales of music will probably not go back up. I admit that I do not buy a lot of music these days. Most popular songs are on Pandora, YouTube, Soundcloud, etc by the artists or the rights’ holders themselves. I mostly buy older music for nostalgic purposes.
I can listen to music almost anywhere with a decent internet connection. And the internet isn’t even as strong and accessible as it will be in the future. I think internet access will become more commoditized and cheaper for the average Joe. Of course people with more money will have more access to more content or super fast speeds. But most of the internet will be like network TV soon.
Anyway, fighting illegal mp3s seems like a waste of time to me. I know that no one wants their music to be used illegally. But if Sony, Warner, Universal, etc. cannot stop their artists’ music from being illegally uploaded and traded, you and I don’t stand much of a chance without some great technological advance.
Fighting pirates is like playing whack-a-mole. You stop one but 10 others appear a second later.
It will take more than legislation and education to stop the problem. But even reducing piracy will not end the demand for cheap entertainment. The demand for cheap entertainment fuels piracy.
Once streaming becomes easier and cheaper than downloading, the downloads will stop. But artists will not necessarily make more money.
Pandora’s box has been opened. The old ways of selling content are over.
I also found one of my songs being used on a YT video that was a rough demo I had never posted/released anywhere except for SoundCloud.
If there’s one common theme that get’s played over and over it’s that SoundCloud is a feeding ground for pirates.
Did you disable downloads?
Did you disable downloads?
There are programs to download from SC, even with downloads disabled.
There are programs to download from SC, even with downloads disabled.
Which is why I only use SC to send private links.
Good points Art and Michael, thank you.
I posted about just such a ripper here on MLR. I wrote a e-mail voicing my concerns to SC. Here is a snippet of their reply about the ripping of music from their site.
Websites, like the one you reported, are exploiting vulnerabilities which are inherent in this streaming technology, which allows them to rip the stream and provide it for download elsewhere. This means that they are not downloading the original file you have uploaded with us, but instead the streamed audio (which is 128 kbps). This is the downside to using a system which allows you to be heard by everyone, everywhere.
There are other streaming protocols which are considered to be more secure, but sadly, they are not as widely supported. By switching the streaming protocol we use, your content would not be playable on certain browsers or devices, preventing people from being able to play your tracks. We are researching alternative streaming technologies to understand how secure they are, how well supported they are, and whether they can reliably stream content. We hope the work being done in this area will allow us to provide the most reliable, widely supported and secure means of streaming content. Once these technologies are more widely supported, we will be in a better position to change the streaming technologies we use.
What I took away from their response was basically: We know about it, we can’t do anything about it and we don’t want to inconvenience the listener or ripper.
If your concerned about your music being ripped all I can suggest concerning SC or YT is to only put up short demos, like a couple of others suggested watermark tracks or just use it for private links.
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