Hello, everyone! After weeks of promotion we are using this post to launch the latest tool in our ongoing efforts to defeat digital piracy. We have been working on this project for the better part of the year and believe it has the potential to make a significant impact on the liquidity of illegal music online. If you have any questions about the content of the blog, or if you would like more information regarding the distributional services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Today is a very exciting day for all of us at Haulix. For more than a month now we have been teasing a new tool to help in the fight against digital piracy, and this afternoon we are beyond thrilled to finally make that offering available to all Haulix clients. We call it ‘Piracy Takedown,’ and in the paragraphs below we will look at what it is, what it does, and how it will help keep your music safe.
Haulix was founded with the goal of creating a secure and place for labels and independent artists to store and distribute their unreleased media. We like to think we have accomplished that goal to an extent, and every day we strive to find new ways to further our efforts because like it or not music piracy is still a very big problem in the modern entertainment industry. Until now, the most a client could do to stop leaks was to attached a watermark to their files, which in reality is more of a preventative measure. With our new ‘Piracy Takedown’ tool, however, clients are able to actively fight the distribution of their copyrighted materials online before and after its scheduled release date without having to make more than a few simple clicks. Our state-of-the-art system, which was desinged with a little help from the the fine folks at Toppletrack, will crawl the internet in search of your illegally shared files and automatically issue DMCA Takedown Notices to the appropriate service providers. They’ll also track all recovered links and inform you when those links have been removed.
The best part about our new system is that it does not crawl the internet once or twice, but rather over and over and over again for as long as a client is a member of Haulix. It doesn’t matter if the content in question has been released or not, as long as you select to implement the ‘Piracy Takedown’ feature Haulix will combat the unwanted distribution of your files online.
This sounds great and all, but how does it work?
Good question, anonymous person on the internet. Using the screen shown in the screenshot below, submit one of your promos or manually add a new album. Once submitted, we will crawl the internet looking in all of the popular illegal networks and Google searching for your album and tracks. When the system encounters an illegal link or file, it automatically submits a takedown request to the internet service provider of the suspect site.
This next screen is to show you what a completed form will look like. You must fill in all the information in order to begin the takedown process.
Once your your files have been submitted and all the information has been added, click ‘Confirm & Submit’ to move forward. The next screen, shown below, asks you to review the information once more and confirm that you understand how pricing works for this feature. Your may upload and protect one release for free, but after that each additional release will cost a one time fee of $9 per track for the first 12 tracks of an album. Each additional song will be free. If you agree to these terms, click ‘Submit for Piracy Takedown’ to proceed.
At this point, your release will be placed into our system and scanning for illegally shared files will commence. Click on “My Takedowns” to monitor progress. Haulix will continue to proactively seek out illegal links and files for as long as you are a customer.
The screenshot above was taken less than an hour after the files were originally added to the system. As you can see, no files have been removed, but the system has already targeted more than 50 links. If you click on the numbers under the ‘In Process’ heading a pop up will appear to show you where the URLs in question:
We will be exploring and further promoting this feature in the weeks ahead. If you have any questions about getting started, or if you would like a guided tour through the setup process, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We will be happy to help in any way we are able.
Hello again. We have spent a lot of time in the last month talking about piracy and the many things you can do as an artist to prepare for and, if necessary, handle leaks. Today we are going to revisit that topic once more to talk about the steps that need to be taken once your material has already leaked online. You may think all hope is lost, but with a little hard work you can curve the unwanted availability of your material in a big way and we are here to help. If you have any questions about the content of the blog, or if you would like more information regarding the distributional services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
If you have been following our company updates over the last few weeks may already know this, but recently Haulix began working on a new update to our distribution service that will allow clients to automatically issue DMCA takedown notices for their copyrighted material. We are admittedly still a few weeks from launch on that project, but we wanted to begin our promotional efforts this afternoon by shedding some additional light on the purpose of these notices and the creation/submission process currently in place.
DMCA stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which is a group of laws that protect copyrighted content and its creators on digital mediums. The DMCA was signed into law in 1998 and has since been the source of the vast majority of infringement issues arising from the continuing spread of digital media. There are many aspects to the law that are worth taking the time to research and understand, but for the purposes of this post we are going to look at the part most are familiar with (at least by name): The DMCA Takedown Notice.
A DMCA Takedown Notice allows copyright holders to request an Internet Service Provider (ISP), search engine, host or other type of site-owner/manager to remove material that is infringing their copyright, regardless of whether or not said copyright has been properly registered. In other words – it provides a means for artists and the people who back them (labels/agencies) to ask that their content not be shared without authorization.
In order to file a DMCA Takedown Notice, you must first establish three things:
You either own the copyright or have the right to claim infringement because of a copyright you license. If you do not have either of these, you are already wasting your time.
The alleged infringement is not covered by an exception, like Fair Use or free speech laws. Stanford Law’s website describes Fair Use as ‘any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an illegal infringement.’ You do not need to understand all the ins and outs of this law to file a DMCA, but you do need a “good faith” belief that the alleged infringing use is not covered by any law which would permit its use.
The content is capable of being infringed online, which essentially means that the work in question is available in digital form. Some examples include text files (txt, rtf, doc, docx, etc), Images (smb, jpg, png, gif, etc), video (mpg, avi, mov, etc.), Music/Audio (aif, mp3, mp4, wav, etc), and images found on social networks (Facebook, Tumblr, etc.).
Once you have determined all three of these things to be true, it is time to move forward with filing a DMCA Takedown notice. It is important to understand that there are very specific provisions of the law you must comply with or the receiving agent may ignore your request:
1. Make sure you have found the proper source of the infringement – When you find your content on another website it may or may not be common knowledge who their hosting company is, but thankfully the internet provides a number of tools to aide in the discover process (I recommend domain tools.
When contacting ISPs with Takedown Notices that are often specific email addresses provided on the host company’s website. You may need to hunt for it, as no two sites are ever the same, but searching DMCA may quicken your hunt for results. If you try and discover there are no specified contacts listed for DMCA Notices, search the US Copyright Office List Of DMCA agents. It should be current.
2. If an online form specifically for DMCA Takedown requests is provided by the contact you are trying to reach it is wise to use that form as your initial point of contact as it is – unsurprisingly – your best bet for yielding a timely response. This may not happen with larger companies (like Google or Bing) generally use forms to direct specific issues to their different departments. There may be separate departments for music and images, for example, or perhaps a bunch of smaller teams dedicated to all digital piracy. You experience will vary by contact.
3. If you discover there are not forms provided and you still feel driven to fight for your rights as copyright holder you will need to take it upon yourself to send your notice to the designated DMCA agent (refer to #1 for help with locating this individual). Email will likely be acceptable for complaint submissions, but you will need to check with your specific agent to learn how they prefer to handle requests. It may be 2014, but some people still think fax machines are the best way to send business materials. Don’t waste time thinking about how much simpler or quick things could be and comply. This is another war for another day.
4. If you find yourself in a position where you need to create the Takedown Notice, there is a very specific set of information you will need to provide (and it is the same as what any form would ask you to fill out). According to lawyer Sarah Hawkins, your DMCA Notice must:
• Be in writing (this includes both hardcopy or digital)
• Be signed (whether in writing of via electronic signature) by the copyright owner or agent
• Identify the original copyrighted work (or works if there are multiple) you claim has been infringed
• Identify the material that is infringing your copyrighted work
• Include contact information so the designated agent can reach you, if necessary
• Include a statement your complaint is in “good faith"
• Include a statement the information in the notification is accurate
• Include a statement that under penalty of perjury you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
I know that list can be a little overwhelming upon first glance, but in the age of the internet there is virtually no form letter in existence that does not come with hundreds, if not thousands of examples available online, for free, that you can copy/paste and adjust to fit your needs. You should always triple check your letters to make sure everything comes across in your own voice and that the above list is followed to a ’t,’ but it’s completely understandable if you choose to use a template letter in order to begin filing your first DMCA Takedown Notices. In fact, I have included a letter below you can feel free to duplicate, manipulate, and use however it is needed. If you have any further questions about these notifications, just comment below and let us know!
I am the copyright owner of the works listed below and the following is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge.
The original work, which I claim copyright for, appears online with my permission at the following locations:
[Insert URLs where your original work is located]
Copies of this original work have been attached to this email for your evaluation and determination.
The allegedly infringing [work – image/sound/video] appears on the following sites:
[Insert URLs where your work is being used without your permission]
My contact information is [address/phone]
The information of the alleged copyright infringer based on what I have been able to find is [insert all the information you have about the site/person behind the infringement]
I have a good faith belief that the copyrighted works referenced above that appear on the website for which you are the registered DMCA agent is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or by law.
I declare, under penalty of perjury, that the following information is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and that I am the copyright owner [or have the license to the copyright] entitled to exclusive right which I believe are being infringed.
signed [insert name] on [date – day/month/year] in [city/state]
[signature]
**TERMS & CONDITIONS OF USE: While forms are commonly used and available elsewhere around the Internet it is important to understand the limitations provided by forms. A form, by its very nature, is previously written, usually to address a typical situation. Unfortunately, in law there are few typical situations. While this form will be useful for some, the use of a form should not be viewed as a replacement for competent legal advise adapted to your particular situation. Haulix accepts no liability if you do use this or a modified version of this Agreement.**
This article is the third in a four-part series on piracy. Click here to read the previous entries.
We love creating content for this blog, but the true mission of Haulix has always been to provide the most secure music hosting and distribution services available online. It’s no secret that piracy has crippled the music industry in many ways over the last decade, and we strive every day to do whatever we can to prevent future music leaks. You see, we may not be musicians ourselves, but recognize that the livelihood of everyone in the music business is dependent on the continued success and support of the artists we sign, promote, and otherwise get behind. If we do not do our part to help them support themselves however we are able then how can we expect anyone to help us when piracy eventually erodes entire segments of the industry?
Recently, it dawned on us that we did not have a strong grasp on what actually makes someone want to leak music. The assumption has been made in the past that these so-called ‘music pirates’ think the praise from anonymous commenters on message boards and forums is enough of a reward to convince them to hurt artists and those who fund them, but frankly we thought that felt a bit too simple to be entirely true. So we decided to do something we had never done before: Seek out a music pirate and convince them to share their story.
This afternoon we are thrilled to share the third in a four-part series that aims to take a closer look at music piracy as seen through the eyes of someone directly responsible for the leaks of several high-profile albums. It’s the story of one individual who managed to engrain themselves in the music industry professionally while simultaneously sharing unreleased records with the world, and it’s told entirely in their own words.
**As part of our agreement with the author of this series, a number of names and websites have been altered to protect identities and certain brand reputations. We have no intention to reveal the author’s name or location.**
When I began my first music-related blog. I had no real appreciation for music journalism or how that sort of thing worked. I just wrote about bands I liked and offered free downloads of their songs via filesharing websites like Mediafire and MegaUpload. It seemed innocent enough and as far I was concerned, I was doing these bands a favor. Free publicity! So that’s what I did. I downloaded songs, re-uploaded them, wrote blurbs, and shared them around.
Through this, my blog saw some success. A few hundred hits here and there added up. I made friends with others who ran similar sites like BrokeNoise, It-Leaked, MP3Boo, Get an Earection, Strike Gently, and a crudely named site I would later admin called LeakySlut. It was a community. We raced against and supported each other. This is what made it fun.
I ran LeakySlut, my own blog, as well as a forum or two for over a year. The first taking priority as a direct competitor to Strike Gently’s fall into poo porn and t-shirt sales. I leaked music and I was good at it. When we got a hold of things early, we’d upload the tracks laced with ID3 tags sporting our brand and push them out to the masses. I pushed the site to my friends and on Internet message boards. When I visited universities I would change the “ready” prompt on printer displays to “leakyslut.com.” I left the site open on public computers. The name alone generated enough interest to click around. When someone asked if it was porn they were looking at, a person would have to show and explain that it wasn’t. The site was self marketing. When I came aboard in fall of 2010, I took a blog posting once or twice a day and turned it into the new #1 source for music leaks in the alternative music community. This was something I was very proud of and later ashamed of. The thrill of delivering copyrighted content to thousands of fans hungry for it felt good, if only for the minutes following the initial post. I felt like I was doing something worthwhile. I thought I was part of the process when, in actuality, I was hindering it.
LeakySlut is gone now. It began to fizzle out once I left for more legitimate work. In spring of 2011, I left the leaking game and never looked back.
A week after leaving LeakySlut, I started an editor’s gig at a music webzine. No more links to zip files and mp3s. Just words on sounds. I had shed the peg leg and eye patch and it felt good. It was every bit as exciting as what I did before, only constructive and beneficial for the artists that I wrote about.
Now I didn’t have to go to sketchy sites to download songs. Instead I was getting albums sent to me unsolicited because I just might listen to it and write about it. I felt important. The feeling here lasted much longer than it did with leaks. I didn’t have to worry about links getting broken because of DMCA takedowns or emails from labels threatening legal action. The words were enough and they were eternal.
I still write about music today. I’ve contributed to a number of publications and haven’t leaked an album in almost 5 years. I’ve never even considered it. I’m in a place where artists, managers, and publicists trust me with their livelihood. They send me their songs trusting that I won’t put them online. I know that doing so could seriously jeapordize their marketing plans and corresponding income. I’m bigger than that. I’m not a villian. I’m a fan of music. Promoting and sharing my taste with others is reward enough. The perks of music journalism are just a plus.
Do I still download music without paying for it? Certainly. But thinking back on the last year of my life in music, I can’t think of a single instance where I didn’t later purchase the artists’ full release. If I want to hear a song now, I can pull up Rdio and listen to it. I pay $10/month to the service and the artist gets a small payout for the play. If I love it, I’ll seek it out on vinyl to add to my collection. I take up Soundcloud download offers when I find them and only rip songs from streaming services if they are no longer available (I’m still an avid demo hunter).
My life as a digital pirate is drawing closer and closer to an end every year. With advancing technology and a deep sense of admiration and respect for my industry’s peers, I have no need for it anymore. I think that this rings true with a lot of fans as well. A majority of the sites I named about no longer exist due to a lack of interest. Even the existing torrenting communities like what.cd are withering away with declining traffic and membership.
In the end convenience is key and if there are better, more legal, alternatives for listening to music, people will take them. Streaming services like Spotify, Rdio, and YouTube are clear indicators of that. The benefits to these serves opposed to piracy are numerous and are topic for another day.
I’m not completely ashamed of my piracy history. It got me to where I am. I learned valuable lessons about art and property through my experience and I think I’m better for it. The Jolly Roger has been lowered and my tri-cornered cap has been hung in the locker of Davy Jones. I won’t be fetching it again.
One of the most exciting things about starting a new column is seeing how you, our readers, engage with the content and help shape it moving forward. In the weeks since Journalism Tips launched we have been inundated with requests for columns on various aspects of the music writing world, and we plan to tackle each one over time. If you have any questions about developing as a writer/blogger in music, please do not hesitate email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
We talk a lot about music piracy and the way it impacts the lives of artists, but album leaks have a way of hurting writers as well. The Rolling Stones of the world may be able to rely on their hundreds of thousands of dedicated readers to support them day in and day out, but writers on the rise and sites just starting to develop their brand rely heavily on features and exclusive content to help bring attention to their efforts. When albums leak in advance of their intended release date the content writers have planned is likely to suffer a drop in appeal. Song premieres are usually the worst hit, but even reviews and interviews can see a dip depending on when the album leaks in relation to its street date and whether or not people seem to like it.
There is not much you can do to prevent pirates from leaking music aside from not supporting or promoting their efforts, but there are ways to alter your original content plans to pull in readers regardless of an album’s availability online.
Address the leak and explain how your content will offer superior sound quality.
The one thing artists hate as much as seeing their music leak is seeing a poor quality version of their music leak. First impressions are everything, and that goes double when the decision of whether or not to spend money on something (in this case, an artist’s music) is concerned.
If you see content you plan to feature leak, take it upon yourself to begin promoting the quality of the audio you will be hosting through your various social networks. There may be a version of the album online, but you have the ‘studio version’ of the recording you plan to share.
A lot of artists take this additional promotional angle into their own hands by creating lyric videos or similar accompanying content in advance of planning exclusives. These artists should be your best friend and whenever you cross paths with them in real life you need to give them all the high fives your hands can stand because they ‘get it.’
I do not advise creating a blog post about the leak. No one (labels, publicists, artists, etc.) appreciates that stuff.
Go ‘Behind The Music’
When albums leak more than a few days before their scheduled release date, it’s possible your site will find itself with a song premiere fans are now less interested in than they were prior to the album leak. Your traffic will still see a bump, and you will most likely still receive a mention in press releases, but the young people who actually engage with the artist day in and day out will have already heard whatever exclusive you have planned. What they may not have heard, however, is the story behind the song. By requesting a quote from the artists on the inspiration for the song, or perhaps some information on the artist’s studio experience, you will be able to create more dynamic content that has a ‘cool’ factor which extends beyond the song at the center of the article.
You can also take things further and request an interview with artist, but time constraints may make such undertakings impossible.
Ask for a contest / something to expand your offering
One thing people love more than the allure of free digital music is the allure of free vinyl and/or concert tickets. Most people are willing to work with sites to create contests, and many have both tickets and physical copies of the album to give away. If a leak should occur, draft an original contest tie-in for the exclusive you are planning to run and ask if the band is interested in working with you. Most will see the opportunity as another way to detract attention from the leak and pounce.
Creativity goes a long way with this tip. I advise making those who want to enter share your content on various networks (tagging both you and the artist as part of their entry).
Prepare for the worst
We ran a column last week that advised every artist, regardless of genre or level of success, to create a plan of action in case their album should leak. Writers need to put similar contingency plans in place should their features be spoiled by the internet.
Whenever you have the opportunity to set up a song premiere or related exclusive with an artist, think ahead and ask yourself: “What would make this content irresistible to the band’s fans?” Your role as a music writer is more than copy and pasting code and album information from one page to another. Create something worth reading and, perhaps more importantly, something worth sharing. Readers will appreciate it and artists will too.
This article is the second in a four-part series on piracy. Click here to read the first entry.
We love creating content for this blog, but the true mission of Haulix has always been to provide the most secure music hosting and distribution services available online. It’s no secret that piracy has crippled the music industry in many ways over the last decade, and we strive every day to do whatever we can to prevent future music leaks. You see, we may not be musicians ourselves, but recognize that the livelihood of everyone in the music business is dependent on the continued success and support of the artists we sign, promote, and otherwise get behind. If we do not do our part to help them support themselves however we are able then how can we expect anyone to help us when piracy eventually erodes entire segments of the industry?
Recently, it dawned on us that we did not have a strong grasp on what actually makes someone want to leak music. The assumption has been made in the past that these so-called ‘music pirates’ think the praise from anonymous commenters on message boards and forums is enough of a reward to convince them to hurt artists and those who fund them, but frankly we thought that felt a bit too simple to be entirely true. So we decided to do something we had never done before: Seek out a music pirate and convince them to share their story.
This afternoon we are thrilled to share the second in a four-part series that aims to take a closer look at music piracy as seen through the eyes of someone directly responsible for the leaks of several high-profile albums. It’s the story of one individual who managed to engrain themselves in the music industry professionally while simultaneously sharing unreleased records with the world, and it’s told entirely in their own words.
**As part of our agreement with the author of this series, a number of names and websites have been altered to protect identities and certain brand reputations. We have no intention to reveal the author’s name or location.**
PART 2 – High School
Throughout my last years of middle school and the beginnings of high school, I kept on collecting. These were formative years by means of my general taste in music. Many of my favorites today were discovered on new release shelves at libraries and in my friend’s collections. I continued to plunder and steal and tally. It was around this time that I first came into contact with the idea of torrenting.
I was always good with computers. My Powerpoints and Windows Movie Maker projects were always the most detailed and animated in classes. If a teacher’s PC wasn’t starting correctly, I was normally the first they’d ask to look at it. My family relied on me for setting up, fixing, and cleaning up their Windows XP-based desktops and I took pride in that. Still, there were things could admit to not understanding and torrenting was one of them. Limewire was one thing. To search and download was easy enough, but somehow the idea of torrenting from The Pirate Bay seemed daunting to me, so I brushed past it and stuck with the citrusy latter.
Oh Limewire, you dangerous little thing. You never did quite know what you were getting with this P2P service. Mistitled songs, incorrectly attributed ID3 tags, viruses abundant… My grandparent’s PC was at the whim of Internet strangers when I began using its services. This was my first real taste of the dangers of piracy and its use was the first thing that made me question not only the legality of music downloading, but the morality as well.
At this point, my library was starting to get a bit messier. I was downloading more single songs than albums. Correctly naming them took time and time was something I began to have less of due to after school activities and clubs. So my collection grew untidy and my care for the music I was getting outgrew that of the number of songs I had. This is when I started becoming a “fan.”
As high school progressed and more Internet access was available to me, I started using my computer ability to my music hunting advantage. First I’d navigate around my school’s Internet blocker of choice using a proxy (or occasionally the actual bypass password itself if I could find it). Then I’d bring up Myspace, Purevolume, or YouTube and peruse the charts. If a download was available, I’d take it. If it wasn’t. I’d make it. Audicity was good for that. A quick switch from “microphone” to “wave out mix” made any listening experience an act of copyright infringement.
Then came blogging. Once I found WordPress and Tumblr, I took piracy a bit further. I went from music collector to music distributor with ease.
My Life As A Music Pirate will continue next Thursday, April 3. Follow Haulix on Twitter and Facebook for updates.
We love this blog. We really, really do. Every now and then, however, it also is a source of great frustration when people contact us believing all we do is spend our days writing about what it’s like to be in the music industry without actually doing much contributing to its progress ourselves. The truth is, the this blog is meant to serve as a marketing tool as much as it is intended to help the next generation of music industry professionals. Our real mission in life is to create the most advanced, secure, and easy-to-use digital servicing platform in the world, and this post exists to bring that mission to your attention.
Today we’re going to look at four reasons people sign up Haulix, and in the weeks to come we’ll be posting more updates on what is going on behind-the-scenes at HQ. If you have any questions about our product, or if you would like to schedule a tour through the service, please do not hesitate to contact james@haulix.com.
1. Security – Music piracy is at an all-time high, and here at Haulix we are doing everything in our power to prevent your album from falling victim to early release. Through a combination of advanced watermarking technology, Permissions, encryption, and secure traffic techniques we are able securely host, distribute, and track your media while you focus on promoting the material itself.
Watermarks contain user specific information that allows us to identify which contact specifically downloaded or streamed a file through Haulix. On average, each track will contain 15-20 watermarks which can survive most attacks such as re-encoding and conversion. Additionally, you have fine grained control over how many times they can stream or download a promo. All traffic in and out of Haulix is SSL encrypted (like bank websites). Haulix automatically prepares your tracks for watermarking and when a contact downloads or streams an album, the injection process is performed in seconds.
2. Customization – We love to focus on the backend of things so that publicists, labels, and bands can put their efforts into promotion. We recognize that in order to do that to the best of their abilities our clients need to be in control of how their content is no only dispersed, but presented. From the “promo” pages where your music securely lives online, to the email you will send when inviting press to experience your material, there are dozens of ways our product can be customized to fit your needs. Want to use a color theme or still image as the background to your “promo” page and/or emails? No problem! Want to limit the number of times an album can be streamed or downloaded by any particular individual? We can do that too.
3. Organization & Analytics – (This may seem like two, but they go hand-in-hand). Expanding on an aspect of our service mentioned in the previous two points, Haulix also helps distribute content. Through our one-of-a-kind email system our clients are able to create contact lists ( or upload their existing contacts), organize them into groups however they see fit, send personalized messages, and access analytics with ease. You’ll know who read your message, which ones accessed the material, and how the engage with it once on the “promo” page.
From a press perspective, Haulix offers a unique organization tool that allows journalists to view all the promos they have been sent by people using our system. Which leads us to our fourth point…
4. Journalist Approved – We could write and write about how we believe our products to be the best in the business, but it wouldn’t matter half as much as the approval of the people bands, labels, and publicists are trying to reach through our service. We don’t want to pat ourselves on the back too much, but here are a few things people have said about Haulix in recent months:
“I always get a little extra excited when I see I have new music through Haulix because I know I can jam it in mere seconds with no hassles.” – Jameson Ketchum, Substream Music Press
“Haulix takes all of the hassle out of receiving new music. It simply combines everything on one page and provides you with promo pictures, bios, videos and whatever else. Since most of the publicists we work with tend to use it, it’s nice to be able to quick switch back to your full catalog of promos you’ve received.” – Drew Maroon, MindEqualBlown.net
“I prefer a watermarked (to keep be accountable of course) zip download with high quality mp3s. Now I don’t always get that, so I roll with what I get. Haulix is cool because you can download and stream and it has the capability of supplying high quality stuff if the label/PR people provide it.” – Drew Beringer, Absolutepunk.net
“I want tracks I can stream, and preferably download too — I’m a New Yorker and do a lot of my listening on the subway, where streaming isn’t an option. Haulix is straightforward and intuitive.” – Jesse Richman, PropertyOfZack.com
Here at Haulix, we dedicate the majority of our daily lives to making sure the music stored and distributed through our state-of-the-art servicing platform is as secure as it can possibly be. From the moment clients upload music to our servers their files are watermarked, and from that point forward every individual accessing their content is given a unique identifier that allows us to trace the source of any future leaks (should they happen to occur). It’s our mission to keep your music away from the public until its intended release date, and we are always open to discussing that mission with anyone who may be unfamiliar with our efforts. If that applies to you, please do not hesitate to email support@haulix.zendesk.com and ask for additional information. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
There is a hard truth to life as a musician that you might as well face now: Your music, be it a future single or the album that follows a few months later, will sooner or later fall victim to music piracy and be freely available to anyone with a working knowledge of Google. It has happened to countless artists from every corner of the planet millions of times before you came along and it will, unfortunately, continue to happen to artists who deserve better for the foreseeable future. We are doing our part to put an end to music piracy, but until it’s wiped from the internet for good artists and groups of all sizes need to be prepared for the worst.
When that frustrating day comes, and it pains us to confess it will more than likely happen to every artist one day, you need to have a plan in place that can be enacted on extremely short notice. These plans will vary greatly from group to group, but there are several universal steps every artist can follow to minimize the damage done from their album reaching blogs before iTunes or Bandcamp. Let’s take a look at them now:
1. Stay calm and remember that the world is not coming to an end.
Album leaks are usually cause for disappointment, but there is a strange sense of comfort to be found in the fact people around the globe want to hear your music so badly that they are willing to risk being in trouble with the law in order to enjoy it before the scheduled release date. That comfort does not take away from the fact those same individuals have completely screwed the carefully crafted marketing plan you had in place, or course, but focusing on the negatives is not going to do anyone any good.
Whether your album leaks a day early or a two months in advance it is important to remember that your career has not been blown to tiny bits of completely free digital dust. It is only a minor setback, thanks in part to the fact you properly prepared for such unfortunate events after reading this article, and with a little focus you will be able to recognize that you’re in a unique position to capitalize on fan-driven curiosity in your album. Embrace it.
2. Recognize the fact your album has leaked, and ask those who enjoy it to support you any way they are able.
Will everyone who downloads your album eventually purchase a copy if they enjoy it? No. What may happen, however, is that a number of people who otherwise may have never encountered your art might come to appreciate your work as a result of the leak, and in time those newly converted followers will begin to show their support by attending a concert, buying merch, or possibly even picking up a record or two. Remember: Your album is as much a product as it is a marketing tool for your brand, and like it or not your band is a brand at the end of the day. If you cannot sell your album to consumers, you might as well try and sell those who take it for free on seeing you live. If they come, great! If they come and buy merch, even better! Either way they will come away from engaging your band with the outlook that you appreciate them simply for being a fan, and even though you wish people bought your music you can understand it’s not something everyone is capable of doing. That kind of outlook makes you appear more human than rockstar, and being viewed in that context is often far more rewarding longterm than any short term financial gains.
3. Revisit your marketing plan and make changes where necessary.
A lot of artists believe that if they choose to ignore the leak of their album and forge ahead with their originally scheduled promotional efforts that their sales will not be hurt. That may apply if you’re someone currently topping the charts, but for those of you on the come up each and every promotional effort made can mean the difference between advancement and career stagnancy. Album leaks should change your marketing plan because the circumstances surrounding the availability of your latest material has changed. Song premieres, for example, are not going to have the same impact now that fans can download the full record with a few clicks, so it is of the utmost importance to take time as an artist or group to try and further refine what is already scheduled it order to make that content more appealing to those who accessed your material early. Offer a behind-the-scenes look at your time in the studio, or put together a track-by-track rundown of the record. If you’re going to continue with songs premieres then make sure you have a lyric video or similar accompanying item to make the exclusive more enticing to fans who have already heard the full album, as well as the blogs who are hosting that content. If you know your album leaked it’s more than likely the bloggers do as well, and they also recognize how unlikely it is certain exclusives will bring in much traffic if the material is freely available elsewhere.
Challenge yourself to do more than you thought necessary, or even possible, and you will succeed. Stay the course and your release may very well be forgotten by the time it hits iTunes. It’s that simple.
4. Make a stream of your album available and direct all traffic to that stream.
This is kind of a continuation from the tip above, but it’s worth highlighting on its own. You can choose to look at album leaks as something people have to hunt for on the vast plains of the internet and try telling yourself that not many people will be willing to go through such efforts in order to hear a few songs a little earlier than everyone else, or you could choose to be realistic and reclaim a little control over how your fans access your new material by hosting your own stream of the record. Use Soundcloud or Bandcamp and, after recognizing the leak, direct all curious parties to hear the album through your link. Ask fans and friends and industry people to do the same.
Timeliness is next to godliness as far as this tip is concerned, but if you have a good relationship with any music writers this may be the perfect time to call in a last minute favor. Getting a blog or site to host your premiere ensures even more people with social influence will be directing fans to content you essentially control. You can survive without their help, but if it’s available to you then you might as well use it.
5. Make the album available for purchase as soon as possible and consider offering it for a discounted price.
There may be two weeks until your physical product comes in for pre-orders, but if your album leaked before you got out of bed today you better do everything in your power to make it available for sale before sundown. Services like Bandcamp makes this type of immediate change incredibly easy.
You will also want to consider discounting the price of a digital download of your album for a short amount of time. It may seem counter-intuitive to ask for even less money on an album you’re already losing sales on due to piracy, but lowering the cost may actually increase the chances of fans supporting the album financially. Most people pirate because it’s both affordable and incredibly simple. You cannot beat free, but you can combat it by lowering the price of your downloads, or even making the record available on a pay-what-you-want basis and appealing to fans to contribute whatever they feel they are able.
You can also take things one step further and offer a discount on all your remaining pre-order packages. How much to offer will vary based on your overall costs, but any amount will help to further entice listeners on the fence over whether or not they should purchase an album all their friends have received for free.
As an example of someone taking back control of their release, please take a quick look at this message released by our friends at Topshelf Records following the leak of You Blew It’s new album near the beginning of 2014:
Wow. The response to yesterday’s premiere has been overwhelmingly awesome — thank you!
I noticed a ton of “leaked” copies of the record being shared everywhere within an hour of that premiere going up, though, and just wanted to post about that. We don’t mind that, at all. We get it, and that doesn’t bother us — we’re excited people want to share this. However, when “this” is a 92kbps 2003-Myspace-dot-com-era-quality-sounding rip of a stream, we get kinda bummed how that’s what people might be hearing and sharing. So, we’ve now sent out the high quality downloads to everyone who pre-ordered the record. We’re not gonna be download cops about it — share it, enjoy it, tell your friends about it — sing it when you see them on tour this month.
This messaging recognizes the leak, then immediately directs everyone’s attention back to the band and what the band has going on in the immediate future. It’s about the band’s stream of the album, the band’s store with pre-order options, and the band’s upcoming tour dates. Bring the focus back to the you and your music. Don’t let pirates steal the spotlight.
It’s worth mentioning that those who choose to put their album on sale early will have a few additional decisions to make, including whether or not to distribute album downloads to those who pre-ordered the album prior to the leak. There are pros and cons to both sides, so the best advice we can offer is figure out what is best for your audience and run with it.
6. Be proactive in fighting music pirates. Submit take down requests and whatever else needs to be done in order to keep your music away from leak sites.
Fighting an album leak is forever an uphill battle. It only takes one person to leak an album on one site or social media service before files begin spreading like the common cold across the web. You may not be able to completely erase every trace of your early album leak from the net, but with time, dedication, and a little help from Google you can make it a lot more difficult for pirates to locate your stolen material.
First, set up notifications through you favorite digital alert service to notify you anytime someone mentions your album online. You will (hopefully) be inundate with news and reviews most the time, but this service will also peak up leak blogs/sites running your album. You may also want to search for your band name and album title, both together and separately, with the phrases ‘zip’ and ‘rar.’ As soon as you find a link you need removed, contact the blog owner, as well as the site hosting the file download (Mediafire, Sharebeast, Zippyshare, etc.) and politely request that your content be removed with the help of a DCMA take down letter. Then use this form and ask Google to remove links from search. It may take a few days, but most people and sites will comply with your requests. As soon as one goes down, however, another one or three will likely appear. Keep pushing. Keep fighting.
You can also ask fans to join in your anti-piracy efforts. Lady Gaga, for example, called on fans in 2013 to report any early leaks of her Artpop album, and thousands sent Mother Monster links in response. It did not plug the leak entirely, but it delayed the majority of music fans from hearing the material until much closer to the intended release date, and in doing so forged a stronger connection between Gaga and her fans.
7. Live to create another day
When all the take downs have been issued and you have told the story of how the leak impacted your plans for the future to the last blogger and fan willing to listen the time will come when you simply need to move on with your career and begin working towards the future. There are more songs to be written, more albums to be recorded, and more many more shows to be performed. People all over the world now have access to your music and no matter what happens from this point forward that will never change. The discovery of your art is going to continue, every day, week, and month for as long as there are people online with a passion for music. There is something beautiful about that, even if it is also financially frustrating, and it offers a rare opportunity to connect with others that many never receive. Make the most of it and forge ahead. Live to create another day.
We love creating content for this blog, but the true mission of Haulix has always been to provide the most secure music hosting and distribution services available online. It’s no secret that piracy has crippled the music industry in many ways over the last decade, and we strive every day to do whatever we can to prevent future music leaks. You see, we may not be musicians ourselves, but recognize that the livelihood of everyone in the music business is dependent on the continued success and support of the artists we sign, promote, and otherwise get behind. If we do not do our part to help them support themselves however we are able then how can we expect anyone to help us when piracy eventually erodes entire segments of the industry?
Recently, it dawned on us that we did not have a strong grasp on what actually makes someone want to leak music. The assumption has been made in the past that these so-called ‘music pirates’ think the praise from anonymous commenters on message boards and forums is enough of a reward to convince them to hurt artists and those who fund them, but frankly we thought that felt a bit too simple to be entirely true. So we decided to do something we had never done before: Seek out a music pirate and convince them to share their story.
Today we are sharing the first in a four-part series on the life of a real-life music pirate. Each entry will tell a chapter of one pirate’s life in music, beginning with their introduction to CD duplication and building to a role in what was once one of the internet’s fastest-growing music leak communities. It’s the story of one individual who managed to engrain themselves in the music industry professionally while simultaneously leaking highly-anticipated records to the world, and it’s told entirely in their own words.
**As part of our agreement with the author of this series, a number of names and websites have been altered to protect identities and certain brand reputations. We have no intention to reveal the author’s name or location.**
Part 1: The Early Years
I suppose my foray into the world of piracy started like most, by digging through my parents’ entertainment cabinet, plundering their CDs and cassettes. I’d store these in my room and listen to them in secret. I doubt I would have gotten into much trouble if caught, but the idea of listening to something that wasn’t delivered to me by radio stations my parents chose excited me to the ends of my tiny little world.
My first cassette was by a boy band. It was the 1998 re-issue of Backstreet Boys. I was probably 10 years old then. I listened to that tape day in and out until I received my second tape, by yet another boy band, ‘N Sync. No Strings Attached.
It was from these humble beginnings that I fell in love with music. From that point I was determined to listen to more than what my mother’s preset FM stations could provide. That’s when the raiding began. I’d sneak listens to CDs by Journey, RUSH, Chicago, and Simon & Garfunkle whenever I could. I strayed as far as possible from my family’s country-western obsession as possible in that cabinet. I found an old walkman and used it when listening on my room’s stereo wasn’t an option. These were my first steps.
Eventually I was found out and encouraged as long as I was careful not to scratch anything. That made listening to these albums unadventurous and obsolete. I needed something else. Something forbidden. That’s when hip-hop came into play.
My childhood best friend had a much different set of parents than I. Whereas mine sheltered me from anything thuggish or promiscuous, his parents allowed him to indulge in violent video games and sexually-charged music. Playing with him meant hours of Duke Nukem and SWAT 3 while Eminem and Nelly played in the background. I learned a lot in that house.
It was during that time that I got my first portable CD player/AM-FM tuner combo. This gave me much greater access to music my parent’s weren’t down with. I’d listen to Casey Kasem’s countdown every week and the local college stations in the days between. While my parents thought I was listening to “Weird Al” Yankovic in my backyard tree-house, I was actually becoming a young rap aficionado.
Outkast, Jay-Z, Usher, Chingy, and the Ying Yang Twins became my soundtrack. Biking around town with my padded headphones on and my CD player in my backpack, I felt like I not only owned my neighborhood, but myself as well. While I certainly wasn’t free to listen to what I wanted by my parent’s rules, I felt free in the music I chose. Hip-hop guided me out of parental restriction and into musical expression.
My rap days faded as the Internet became more prevalent in school and society. Internet blockers weren’t as strict back then, which allowed me to indulge in music videos and websites like SingingFish (RIP). This is about the time pop-punk music started taking hold of my life. Bands like Green Day and Fall Out Boy became my favorite thing. I’d download System Of A Down songs at school, copy them to a disc, and bring them home to burn to another disc. This was by no means an ideal process, but I had no real Internet connection in my house until I was in college. AOL’s dialup service notwithstanding.
No, I wasn’t an Internet pirate until my 8th grade year. Until that point I found other means to obtain music without pay. I’d borrow CD’s from friends and copy them using Windows Media Player at home, returning them the next day. They were none the wiser. This idea carried over to the local library when I realized that it was more than a haven for bookies.
After school each day, I raced to the library to grab one of 4 computers before the other kids arrived. During my hour of registered computer time, I would log onto Runescape and collect coins and medieval weaponry. In a second window (this was pre-tabs), Yahoo! Music would be loaded and ready to go, introducing me to new bands every day. When I heard a song I liked, I’d switch from my game to the player and capture the artist’s name. This would be added to a written list that I would use in my last 10 minutes of each web-session. If my library didn’t have the CD by the artist I wanted to hear more of, I’d order it in. For the next several years, I’d have a new stack of jewel cases waiting for me every week for pick-up. I’d take them home, rip them to Musicmatch Jukebox (Later Yahoo! Music Jukebox and Rhapsody), and then return them after school the next day.
This is when my obsession with collecting music began. Watching the number of albums and hours of audio grow became a drug to me. It became less about listening to the music as it did cataloguing it on my family’s computer. My library grew substantially through the years via my library ordering method. I became the guy my classmates would come to for music. They’d hand me flash-drives and CDs and ask for music. Nothing specifically, just things I thought that they would like. Music became more than a hobby for me in my middle school years. It became an identity.
My Life As A Music Pirate will continue next Thursday, March 27. Follow Haulix on Twitter and Facebook for updates.
