In the past, I’ve had 2 SoundCloud mixes flagged for copyright violation. These weren’t BeatPort top 10 style tracks, and that’s what surprised me. So I started doing the tried and true “5 seconds of silence” trick, and that was working fine until last Saturday I was uploading my July mix but it was flagged. I edited the mix and put 10 seconds of silence in, still was flagged. This, along with these two articles have lead me to downgrade my account from Pro Unlimited, and at the end of this month I’ll be back to basic, and I’m moving all my 2014 mixes to MixCloud and Mixcrate.
My gripe with the whole thing is this: how come I get flagged, but Mixmag/Thump/Fact/other popular podcast or emag puts mixes up regularly with nary a slap on the wrist or a cross look? Besides a large number of followers, a dedicated social media PR team, and a strong presence in the industry, what’s the difference between us? I’m not doing anything different than they are, they just happen to reach more of an audience.
Look, we all know when we put a mix up we don’t own the rights to any of these tracks. We’re just trying to share something we’re passionate about. Some labels see it as free promotion, spreading awareness of their product. Others think you’re violating their copyright and taking money away from them. That’s fine, a little discouraging, but that’s their right. All I’m saying is if you’re going to go after the little guy, then the big boys should be held just as accountable. Your number of followers/plays/likes shouldn’t make you above the law.
they are held accountable
even celebrity producers get their mixes taken down
recently i posted a topic all about this and linked to a news article later in the discussion.
Hold them accountable? they are being held…their release companies, agencies, etc, are paying royalties and licensing feeds to use the same song you are using for free
they should email you to let you know the offending track and label. just stop using that label.
maybe i’m one of the lucky ones, over 85 mixes up and have only had 3 pinged since 2007
Yep, I got those. All 3 times it was a different label, and ones that I thought were “mixtape” friendly labels. I’m just tired of spending the time putting something together, mastering it, typing up a tracklist, sitting through the entire upload process, crossing my fingers hoping it won’t get flagged. I wish they would tell you sooner when it does trip a wire so it doesn’t feel like you just wasted a half hour sitting there.
sucks, i know. in couple of cases, i’ve been able to edit the intro with a fade in or add some subtle flanger and they accepted it then, most of the time its the first track they flag anyway.
Are these take downs related to enabling the download feature? As I also understand it, Mixcloud has a royalty agreement to cover mixes upload but Soundcloud does not. Perhaps Soundcloud should fix the problem if this is it, after all most of us pay to use it (yeah I know we pay for bandwidth, server space, etc).
I don’t think whether you enable downloads or not affects the copyright violation, it’s just the content. It’s usually the first track where it gets you, but last March I had something taken down I’d had up since January of 2013, so it’s not like if you make it through once you’re safe for good.
I’ve moved everything to Mixcloud, and gradually Mixcrate as well, but it’s difficult to get the same number of plays there than at SoundCloud. But I’m not going back and it will be nice to not have to worry about how many seconds of silence/effects I have to have at the start of a mix to get past copyright gatekeepers, and SoundCloud’s only going to get worse.
Just got flagged when trying to post a mix right now. How can I add an intro/silence to an existing mix though? I use Audacity to record and the only thing I know how to do is hit the record button. !
no u dont have to re-record a new mix. You just need to use the INSERT function and INSERT silence in the begining of your audio file
But what we are talkign about is since you dont know WHAT song was flagged in your mix by SC then itll just get taken down again.
Recording a new mix means you could possible still be using that same flagged song
Also throw in some effects in audacity for the first thirty seconds or so. Transition volume in, phaser/flanger, just enough to make it sound different so the autodetect can’t determine that first song.
I tend to use MixCloud for live sets as well because if I put it on Soundcloud it really runs down my number of available minutes. I use Soundcloud for production and Mixcloud for DJing.
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