The SoundCloud Apocalypse Is Upon Us
Peter Rubinstein
August 13, 2015


Entire Soundcloud accounts are now being forcibly taken down left and right.

Following the gradual installation of new rules, regulations, restrictions, and hindrances imposed by the streaming service during the last few months, it seems that they’ve decided to step it up several notches. DJ mixes with unlicensed material, tracks with unauthorized samples, and bootleg remixes that bear too strong a resemblance to the original are all being removed with speed and hostility.

Because of Soundcloud’s unprofitable history and subsequent alliance with major record labels and copyright organizations, the freedom and ability to experiment and create that made the site what it is are now being completely compromised by tit-for-tat licensing disagreements. Instead of maintaining a personal and genuine relationship with their vast network of dedicated users (despite the recent BS), they’ve begun to cower behind loose legal jargon and vague statements that seek to shift the blame somewhere else.

We can’t comment on specific rightsholders, but we’re happy to host any content on the platform as long as it’s properly authorised. If we’re told that any content has been posted without permission, we need to remove that content in accordance with applicable law.

We’ve also gotten word that Soundcloud is currently being attacked by a European collection agency. They are receiving reports against tracks that contain “copyrighted content for which publishing rights may not have been cleared in certain European territories.” If this message is received on an account, the holder is given a thin window of time to prove their ownership or legal access to the material. To do this, they must present evidence “that you or your company fully own all rights including publishing rights in all territories where the tracks have been made available and that you are NOT affiliated with any European collecting societies” or “that you or your company have cleared all publishing rights – including mechanical rights AND public performance rights – in all territories where the tracks have been made available.”

If the above proof cannot be shown within the allotted time frame, the account receives a strike. Three strikes and the account is removed.

Several major accounts have run into issues with the three-strike policy, as they claim the material that was flagged was entirely licensed to them. FACT Mag reported that London’s Radar Radio had their account terminated. Soundcloud’s eventual response was as follows:

"SoundCloud have stated if we can persuade Sony to remove the objections then they will remove the strikes to restore and unlock our account. However, under instruction from Sony, SoundCloud are not allowed to tell us who to contact within the organisation. We have only ever uploaded music that Sony have sent us to promote, so it seems ridiculous that they would want to shut down our account and prevent us from supporting new music signed to their label in the future."

The result of this recent purge seems to be a disorganized mishmash of blame, unjustified takedowns, and a horrifying lack of clear communication between Soundcloud and its associated label sponsors. The ultimate effects of this disarray fall on the users, however. If there was ever a time to start searching for a new platform, it’s now. Read below for a first-hand reaction from artist JakK’D.

“For real… Our JakK’D profile was taken down today ( inserting 45 sad face emojis right now ). We get it, you guys suck now as a platform, you think everyone is on this copyright infringement tip, but lets think back to old school hiphop, old school house music, fuck even rock songs sample each other ( & don’t get me started on country; No offense, some of it I can stand, but that shits copied more than a machine at staples ). Lets be real for a second… If an artist wants to remix a song its the choice of the artist. If an artist wants to press charges for someone remixing without permission, that is a different story. But a lot of them take it as a compliment and love… Its the fat guys behind the scene who are angry. SoundCloud is choosing to delete all of these for one simple reason; They are dead broke, and lost touch with why they created the site in the first place. They are kissing the asses of Sony and Universal and so on in an attempt to keep themselves on the chart, but they are taking away form the people who got them there in the first place. They are so caught up in trying to get back on top and get out of debt that they don’t realize by doing this, they are losing millions of views, thousands of artists, and hundreds of random people looking for new music. Music as a business has changed so much over the past 15 years BECAUSE of the internet; & this, has its pros and cons. I remember going to Strawberry’s as a kid and scanning a CD and listening to it to see if I wanted to buy it, the internet wasn’t as advanced as it is now. Buying music back in the day was a fucking ADVENTURE. Get a ride to the mall, meet your friends, fuck around, scan CDs, pick some out, bump them until they got all scratched up and couldn’t be played anymore. That was awesome ( besides the fact you spent so much money ). But now, you can just sit in a chair in your PJs and stream, pirate, download, and still buy everything right at your computer… Songs are even sold for $1.99 even! To me, its lazy, but its how the world works now in this industry. I remember watching TRL and shit; Does anyone remember remixes back than? Diddy was on everything… Welcome to ATL and Touch it had EVERYONE on the remixes. Music was being mad because the love of the music. Now a days however, its almost impossible for an artists to be introduced to the game by just an original track; Everyone is remixing or making a dance off of something that is already out there, so they can get noticed by the world, so the world can hear what they really are about once they released their original music… Some artists even hold remix contests and shit to help get themselves noticed more and out there. The reason why SC is doing this is simple; There is no money to be made in just straight music anymore, and all these major labels are attacking platform based websites because of this. 90% of an artists income is from tours, merch, & collaborations with products and TV. So because of this, the big guys of the 1% are attacking all the little ones so they cant progress, so they can keep their yachts… What do I think is going to happen from this? Downfall, just like cassettes replacing records and MP3s replacing CDs. Sooner or later all these majors are going to attack everyone who even uses the same hi hat patterns or some shit. People are going to get sued so even just DJing a track. What do I think should happen to fix this? Major companies getting their heads out of their asses and realizing were all working to make art and give back to the public. I think a new form of ‘remixes’ or ‘edits’ should be allowed, but with rules; Not punished for being creative. Oh I remixed Kanye or Drake? BE HAPPY! That means someone loved your sheeps music so much they wanted to add their touch to it! They loved it so much they got a creative spark from it and ran with it. It’s pretty hard to remix All Day or Back 2 Back and call it your own, when clearly everyone knows who it came from… The only way the remixer is making a dime is by playing it in his set at a show or gig, or spitting a freestyle over the instrumental for a live audience. You see it on TV all the time… Family guy copying the Simpsons, or South Park copying movies… Bringing real life events into made up show; Everyone uses everything. So why with music is it suddenly becoming such a bad thing? It’s not like 1980 where you could rhyme simple things and play a simple riff and beat; We have to be advanced now because its all already been done. So instead of punishing us for being creative; Why not praise us? Why not give us some guidelines to follow so small artists can remix and bootleg? Why not allow sample based music to rise like it has been… Because I can promise this… If it doesn’t change, music is going to die.”



Sources: FACT, Thump ,

YouEDM.com

 

i was seeing this from years ago when the whole thing was lunched... when you get to the top you are forced to apply certain rules that you do not want but you must, copyright is a thing that today's days is taken to extreme for the sake of MONEY ...lets hope some other platform emerge after this bulls*** ...

 

Agreed! That's one of the many reasons why I am extremely reluctant to post any of my material to the site. How many music notes are there in the Octatonic, Heptatonic, Hexatonic scales (respectively)? It's virtually impossible for any composer to NOT repeat phrases, chords or riffs from other songs -- especially well-known ones. So, are we all (composers) guilty of some form of copyright infringement? Sound Cloud's latest tactics are not only stupid, but Draconian (at best). Looking into the crystal ball that encompasses the music landscape, it does not look too rosy for musicians moving forward. It's almost a certainty, when (in a just a few years) we look back at this artistically 'repressive' climate, we'll all (undoubtedly) will be saying, "how in the hell could we have allowed that to happen?" Hindsight is always a real bitch!

 

First, but least, there is this site "for" mixes, DJ sets and podcasts: Mixcloud.

Second, and foremost:

People are suprised by Soundcloud's enforcing their own rules? The third paragraph under the heading Your Content in Soundcloud's Terms of Use reads:

Without prejudice to the conditions set forth in Your Use of the Platform you must not upload, store, distribute, send, transmit, display, perform, make available or otherwise communicate to the public any Content to which you do not hold the necessary rights. In particular, any unauthorized use of copyright protected material within Your Content (including by way of reproduction, distribution, modification, adaptation, public display, public performance, preparation of derivative works, making available or otherwise communicating to the public via the Platform) may constitute an infringement of third party rights and is strictly prohibited. Any such infringements may result in termination of your access to the Platform as described in the Repeat Infringers section below, and may also result in civil litigation or criminal prosecution by or on behalf of the relevant rightsholder. (emphasis not added)

The first two paragraphs of the Repeat Infringers section, further down, reads:

SoundCloud will suspend or terminate your access to the Platform if SoundCloud determines, in its reasonable discretion, that you have repeatedly breached these Terms of Use or our Community Guidelines.

If we receive a valid notification from a third party in accordance with our reporting processes or applicable law that any of Your Content infringes the copyright or other rights of such third party, or if we believe that your behaviour is inappropriate and violates our Community Guidelines, we will send you a written warning to this effect. Any user that receives more than two of these warnings is liable to have their access to the Platform terminated forthwith.

On the page that shows when one clicks "Upload," there appears this text:

Important: By sharing, you confirm that your sounds comply with our Terms of Use and don't infringe anyone else's rights. If in doubt, check our Copyright Information pages and FAQs before uploading.

Soundcloud even spells it out for users, on what resembles a Copyright for Dummies page, with a checklist by which one can verify whether what one is uploading be legit and legal or not.

This isn't even a debate about whether re-mixes or other obviously-derivative works should be considered "fair use" or granted license because they're a badge of fandom or appreciation of someone/else's music. This isn't an invitation to nit-pick about what constitutes sampling or plagiarism, nor about how popular music has "always" been a matter of recycling and repurposing predecesors' ideas and compositions. This isn't about how the big music corporations have too much power over venues like Souncloud and can just have a lawyer wave a magic wand and cause someone's Souncloud account to disappear. It's about playing by Soundcloud's rules, for which one signs-up and agrees-to as soon as one uploads an audio file to it. Those rules happen to be coincident with laws – because Soundcloud wants at least to maintain its own legitimacy and right to exist.

Ever go to a diner that has a sign posted, reading, "No shirt / No shoes / No service?" If you're not wearing shoes and/or aren't wearing a shirt, you get no service. Whether or not those rules might be the result of laws pertaining to restaurants, they're the house rules. If you can't abide by them, either don't go in, or expect to get denied service if you go in without shirt and/or shoes. If you get kicked-out, don't whine about it: you'd knowingly asked for it.

 

Last edited: Aug 14, 2015

Nevermind the bollocks

 

Just like Napster way back in the day, it got big, they smelled money ( or loss thereof), and poof !! Online one day, and virtually non-existent the next. What happenend? Did the music become unavailable? Obviously not !

It just goes somewhere else

It's a totally losing game of wack a mole, and when they go after services that people like and use often, and have invested
their time in, they get even more disgusted with the corporate overreach and greed.

People will get tired of jumping through Soundcloud's hoops, they are music makers, not lawyers.

It may not be as pretty as Soundcloud, but as time goes along there will be another place that emerges.
And probably more wide open and ungovernable than before !


addendum: and.. God Save the Queen !

 

Tbh. I dont care at all. If you truly love music and you want to create you wont have any problems whatsoever with this. There is to much shit music out there. Dont get me wrong, a good remix is not a bad thing but when everyone makes the same sound over and over again it gets stupid. Its the same with games and movies, when something new is created everyone copies it in some form or another. We need to keep moving forward, we need more people creating new and intressting things and that rarely happens when you copy someone.

 

Great post mate. i completely agree and as much as i'd like to see a stop to the copyright infringement bullshiz i dont think it will change. The same with youtube when you use music in your vids etc. Surely you would think it would be good publicity. But the labels are getting their asses in their hands because they 'OWN' the material. There acting like children.

 

"I can't get keep getting virtual followers for material I didn't even write." Weh.

 

It's a good thing, too many dj's and remixers anyway. It's so easy to make a song nowadays with so many software DAWS and plugins and hardware shit so it's amazing people still rob other people songs for more followers.
It doesn't matter if your song is bad, is YOUR SONG. Stop remixing, creating stupid million of imbecile Mixtapes and nobody will ever delete your account.
Now, Soundcloud, erase all the fake accounts that bombard my mail with View Offers and the place will be great again.

 

Although its not my cup of tea some people enjoy remixing and putting their own twists on songs and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact i'm currently listening to a sick dnb remix right this second. High contrast vs fsol new guinea remix. Tell me that wasn't a worth while effort

 

they have not taken none of my stuff down my stuff it's all original But i would Not Be suppressed if they start harassing every one just because they Can Fuck them i Use Reverb Nation More any ways

 

A while back I uploaded a cover of a song from a VIDEO GAME (Silent Hill 4) and it was immediately taken down and I got a copyright notice. I didn't even sample the original track or anything. So fucking stupid.

 

I got a copyright notice also. I have one strike. What pisses me off so much is they say Sony contacted them I asked for the contact info so I could contact them directly and they refuse to give it to me. I think they are full of it.
Why would they not give me a copy or the person to contact to resolve the issue. Sound like BS to me.

 

I've done remixes for Record Companies and it's all good, because I was hired to do it.
It's business as usual but when it's done and them made avail on a public platform,
without their permission, it's copyright infringement.

Yes.
This absolutely, positively sucks for the freelance remixers, just wanting to have fun and show off their talents to the world.
But these companies and artist, want to control the extent and proliferation of their materials to the world, just like
any other business selling goods and commodity. If you start looking at it like that, the picture becomes a tad clearer.
Sure, what you've done in your bedroom sounds great (maybe not) but understand, the unsolicited remix
rips the ability of its original copyright owner the ability to control their work and make money from their original work.
It's simple as that.

 

IMO, nothing wrong with showing your talent as long as it doesn't involve other people's work.

To be honest, I always thought "How the fuck can someone get away with sharing other people's music just by calling it a remix/mixtape?"

 

When bands, DJ's, etc. do covers in a club or a bar, the bar has to pay royalties. I'm sure Soundcloud doesn't want to be forced to pay royalties on unsolicited covers. It doesn't entice people to buy more booze.
I think the only valid argument against SC in this situation is if the works are original compositions 100%, and someone is claiming infringement on some false basis. If not, Boo Freakin Hoo. You got caught. Lucky that your not getting sued like some Napster members did.

Negative:
Why does this post sound like the entitled people who whine about warez?

Maybe you should ask alternatives to SC instead of just posting someone else whining about it. you can't even whine yourself, you have to copy and paste it from someone else.

Positive:
Use this as inspiration to create your own music. 100% yours. No copying no imitating and no whining. See if you are a real talent and not just a hack.

 

A remedy for services like these are to go "old school" using embedded players on free or low cost hosting services.
A search for free web sites reveals quite an assortment.

For those serious or hoping to grab attention, a small investment of $2.95 a month can get you going.
From there, it's just a matter of getting the word out using forums and all the other known means
of linking people to your material.

Moving forward....

 

if you dont like what soundclown are doing theres a very simple answer...
MOVE PLATFORM, like hearthis or such like, plenty of options out there.