Tag: anti-piracy

Categories
News

BANDS: If you do not make your new music easily available online someone else will

image

This is going to sound a little crazy at first, but the availability of your material online is just as important to curving piracy in 2016 as the need to actively combat the proliferation of links through DCMA Takedown Notices. That may seem counter-intuitive, as the spread of your unreleased material is typically not something you want easily available to anonymous people online, but there comes a point in every album promotion cycle where the exact opposite becomes true. Allow me to explain…

Let’s pretend for a moment that we are all in the same band. Our new album, which we have been working on for the past several months, is due out in the near future. Pre-orders have been going strong for a while now, but with a new tour starting 10 days before the album’s release we’ve decided that we will have copies of the record available for sale at every date of the run. This means that, for about a week and a half, anyone who attends a concert of ours will be able to purchase our new album early, which on paper seems like a good deal for everyone involved: Fans get music early, and we begin seeing an early return on our creative efforts.

There is a catch, however, and that is the fact that anyone with early access to our album also has the ability to leak that record online. 10 days may not seem like a long time when you step back and think about a career in music as a whole, but in the world of piracy it’s equal to a lifetime. Kanye West’s latest album The Life of Pablo, for example, leaked online before many people even knew where to find the record’s official Tidal stream. Within 24 hours more than 100,000 people had downloaded the original leak, and countless more had shared their download with family/friends. By Friday of that same week more than half a million people had illegally downloaded the record, with tens of thousands more following suit the next day.

Our band might not have the same size audience as Kanye West, but our album could suffer a similar fate if we do not take steps to curve the proliferation of illegal downloads online. The first round of defense is, of course, asking fans to wait and purchase the album. The second, and honestly – most important of all – is that we MAKE THE ALBUM AVAILABLE ONLINE.

The key to winning the battle against piracy, especially over the longterm, is taking whatever steps you can to make your music available to fans. This includes, but is not limited to: Soundcloud album stream, Spotify stream, Rdio, Pandora, and Bandcamp. As soon as a physical version of your album is available for sale you need to have a digital stream available and ready to be shared with press and fans alike. By offering a free and completely legal way to access music fans have less reason to even look for leaks, let alone download them. Why should they? Streaming is the number one way people experience music today, so if streaming is an option for your fans they won’t feel the need to engage in piracy. Everything they want is already available, it’s free as well.

A recent report showed that almost ¼ of an album’s total sales happen BEFORE the scheduled release date. Leaks can help sales, but more often than not they have the opposite effect. Streams on the other hand, can encourage consumers to purchase the album, as well as aide in promoting tours and other upcoming events. By hosting the stream yourself the power is entirely in your hands, which is something most artists rarely experience in the modern business.

Categories
News

Anti-Piracy Tip: Research every promo request, even if it comes from the artist

Journalism is a tough game, and anyone who works in it will tell you that is sugarcoating the reality of the situation. There are far more people seeking paid work in writing than there are positions available, and as a result the competition for access to album advances, concert tickets, photo passes, and the like is extremely tough. People will do anything they can to not only get the attention of publicists, but to set themselves apart as someone whose words and influence can greatly benefit a certain artist or project. We encourage you to do the same as well, but we draw the line when people start to lie.

Yes, in the age of Google and global interconnectivity there are still some people who believe they can get ahead in business by pretending to be something or someone they are not. The image at the top of this post shows a screenshot from an email a publicist forwarded our way. Their PR company was contacted by someone named Molly who claimed to be a writer looking for tickets to cover an upcoming concert. To confirm their story, the PR firm in question requested that the writer send along an example of their work, and the screenshot above shows what they received. At first glance, everything looks legit, but that is not the case. A quick google search using any sentence(s) from this post will show you the original article was not written by ‘Molly,’ but rather by Jennifer Moore for Sound Scene Express (proof). 

Once the PR firm discovered Molly’s lie, they reached out to confront her/them. Molly, in turn, fell silent and was never heard from again. 

People impersonating others to gain access is certainly not a new concept, but it’s hard to live a life where you question everyone you meet. Publicists are inundated with dozens, if not hundreds, of requests every day. Most struggle to find time to read everything, so it’s easy to understand why many do not think to further research the people who send requests and provide evidence of their work – but it is something that must be done. Whether the request comes from a new writer or someone claiming to be connected to the artist in question, it is incredibly important that PR and labels confirm they are who they say they are. If not, leaks will happen and the wrong person will be blamed, which is not good for anyone.

We’re not saying to stop trusting people, but we do believe you need to confirm new contacts are who they claim to be prior to sending advances or granting access to live events. It may require more work, but a little extra effort is far better than a leak that causes irreparable damage to your artist, as well as your reputation in PR.

Categories
News

Taylor Swift’s Secret Internet Police Are Now Targeting Periscope Users

Taylor Swift may be the queen of modern pop music, but her latest tour has ruffled more than a few feathers with its aggressive approach to controlling media distribution. The first to complain were photographers, many of whom believed the ‘1989’ creator’s photo release form to be outright ridiculous. As photographer Jason Sheldon explained in his open letter to Swift, the photo waivers for the pop star’s concerts stipulate that a photographer can use the images from the show only once and only within the published report on that performance. That means they can’t sell it to other editorial outlets, nor can they sell prints of the image in any way.

While this is not an entirely uncommon set of guidelines for a photo release, it is only the tip of the iceberg on for Swift. As COS points out, “the real kicker is not the rights it takes from the photogs, but what it gives Swift and her team. The contract states that Swift and Firefly Entertainment have the ability to use any concert photographer’s images themselves for any publicity or “non-commercial purpose” in perpetuity. In other words, they can use a photographer’s work in marketing material and not pay them a penny.”

None of these restrictions have applied to photos taken by fans, of course, but only because fans are rarely in a position to snap a high quality photo of Swift during her performance. The photos fans take are often zoomed in shot of the pop star taken from a great distance. They’re the kind of thing people share on their Snapchat story, or in a thread with friends who could not attend, which is a long way of saying the pictures fans captures are intended for non-commercial use. Apparently, this is still not good enough for Taylor Swift and/or her team because a new story circulating online points to even more aggressive restrictions being placed on media captured during Swift’s latest tour.

As TorrentFreak first broke late last week, Taylor Swift in her team have reportedly been issuing dozens of takedown notices to fans and media who use Periscope to capture her performances. The videos, often shared by some of the most passionate fans, are seen as apparently being viewed as copyright infringement. Swift has surrounded herself with a dedicated enforcement team called TAS Rights Management who swiftly take them offline. An example of one a takedown notice currently being distributed can be viewed below:

As far as we know, Taylor Swift is the only artist who has assembled an entire takedown task force to protect what she perceives a copyrighted material. She is not, however, the only person to issue takedown notices for Periscope broadcasts. Many brands, including sports organizations like the NFL, NBA, WWE and Premier League, also have teams working to make sure their broadcasts are not replicated or shown without their consent.

While we understand Swift’s desire to keep the best parts of her show a secret for those who pay to see her, we can’t help but feel her secret task force may eventually do more harm than good. A big part of why we enjoy social media as a culture is the way it allows us to share experiences instantaneously. Swift is essentially trying to prevent that type of interaction from happening whenever the media being shared involves her, and in a way its only serving to mute her most dedicated fans. Call us crazy, but we don’t really see the benefit in that. Do you?

Categories
News

Can Dead Musicians Help End Piracy?

The music industry has made many attempts to stop piracy through advertising campaigns over the last twenty years. Tech Dirt actually posted a great roundup earlier this year highlighting some of Universal’s best and worst ads, including one that tried to connect illegal downloading with stealing a limb from one of your favorite musicians. Needless to say, the response were not what the company was hoping for.

The latest campaign comes courtesy of the Leo Burnett agency, allegedly working on behalf of Virgin Radio. As first reported by TorrentFreak, these ads use the tragic life stories of Marvin Gaye, Elvis Presley, and Amy Winehouse to explain why people need to think twice before downloading or sharing pirated music. The idea seems to be make people feel as if their download could have contributed to the death of these celebrities, which is a pretty deplorable idea if you ask us. See for yourself:

“The goal was to create a connection to each musician and the blood, sweat and tears that created the now-legendary music,” said Leo Burnett in a statement.

While readers will certainly form their own opinions on the campaign, Leo Burnett have already given it their gold seal of approval.

Using a 10-point assessment mechanism known as the “HumanKind Scale”, the company’s Global Product Committee has rated ‘If you knew what went into it, you wouldn’t steal it’ a 7.3.

“Work that receives a 7-point rating is considered to be the benchmark for excellence in craft,” the company says.

I have been looking at these images for a while now and I just don’t get it. I don’t understand the motivation behind it, I don’t know who on Earth would take time to read every word, and I don’t know who, if anyone, they could win over through this campaign. It’s well designed enough, I guess, but that is purely cosmetic and has no real value in terms of convincing people to stop pirating music.

Do these campaigns work on you? Comment below and let us know.

Categories
News

Why You Now Need Haulix More Than Ever Before

From day one, our mission at Haulix has been to provide the easiest and most secure platform to distribute advance music available. We like to think we have accomplished that, though our efforts to actually defeat piracy continue to this day. Still, many inside our industry, as well as general consumers, no longer think piracy is as big of an issue as it was during the heyday of Napster and related P2P servers. As much as we wish that were the case, it’s simply not the truth, and we are now able to share new research that shows just how damaging digital piracy continues to be to the music industry as a whole in 2015.

Fact: File-sharing in North America has grown 44% from 2008 to 2014. This runs counter to essentially every news article written by mainstream press, which often sites the rise in streaming platforms as an argument for why piracy is no longer a big deal, but it IS a big deal. Actually, it’s bigger than big. The continuing rise of piracy tells us that even though access to music through legal means is seemingly easier than ever before people are still turning to illegal activity in order to enjoy their favorite entertainers.

The U.S. Copyright Office put out a report in February 2015 titled ‘Copyright and the Music Marketplace’ where regarding piracy, the editor stated, “Unlike in the Napster era, stakeholders now seem resigned to this marketplace condition and the perhaps irreversible impact it has had on the industry.” As much as this thought makes us cringe, it’s not entirely untrue. Every single music industry client we have had over the years has expressed a certain level of expectation regarding leaks. They don’t want them to happen, but they expect the will, even if they take extra measure to prevent such activity from take place. They believe those who wish to leak something will aways find a way to do so, and we at Haulix have made it our mission to prove that does not have to be the case.

When someone signs up for Haulix they are making it known they will no longer sit back while pirates steal the work of their artists and freely share that content online. With the help of our state-of-the-art watermarking technology, as well as secure email distribution, we offer front line defense against leaks, with additional security measures being implemented on a regular basis. Should a clients material still find its way online, we also have tools in place to aide in the removal of leaked files from the internet. Our ‘Automated Takedown’ service, for example, crawls the web endlessly in search of pirated materials. Once located, the system logs the link, auto-submits an RIAA takedown notice, and then tracks the action of the link host until the files have been erased or removed.

Just because digital piracy has been present for more than a decade does not mean it has to continue to exist for the foreseeable future, but labels and artists alike must take action in order to make a change. Signing up for Haulix is the first step to ensuring your future releases are safe from pirates, and we have a team of industry experts on hand waiting to assist you in making sure your content is not only safe, but also presented to the press in a way that reflect the brand(s) you are trying to develop. We believe a future without piracy is very much a possibility, and we are working every day to provide industry professionals with the tools they need to help us win the war against leaks. If you’re ready to join our ranks, click here to start your free 30-day trial today.

Exit mobile version