http://djripley.blogspot.com/2010/12/wa ... en-is.html

I know a lot of us have been trying to keep our eye on Soundcloud as of late. Between all the changes that were made in the last few months, it appears they are taking their site one more step closer to total corporate control.
How do you guys feel about this? I, for one - realize that the only reason they got this big was because of people like me who use it for both remixes and originals. But to remove all material, such as mixes, remixes, mashups and generally any material that doesn't fit their criteria is almost a slap in the face to the people who helped make this site what it is.

it's been annoying as fuck, having to send proof of ownership for every tune and having them 'hide' racks that are legitimate even though you may have paid for an account and may be using those tunes on other paid marketing programs, also to send out 48 hour legal notices on Christmas Saturday, meaning that if you did not get back to them by Monday 27th the tracks are gone.

They are really doing this in a stupid manner and borderline breaking the laws they claim they are enforcing.
For instance sending a message to a record labels account notificatying them that they 'the same label' has supposedly lodged a complaint against itself and all it's artists ????

Really whack

HOLY SHIIT

OK, so this isn't a blanket thing, because i haven't received any notice, is it US only at the mo?

@Dov, this really sux, and will impact our beginnings at SixBux as we are heavily reliant on linking multiple social sites via one streamline tool. As i am sure is a bigger problem for you...?
Is this legal?

I found that it was quite wrong when myspace blanket upgraded every account to its default 'beta' template abit on the farked side, as it left no room for the choice between the new and the old...

What are our choices... Are we being forced back underground digitally too?

I think you can still just put your stuff up on bandcamp, LOL. There are other sites... yeah a lot of us will probably get a takedown notice for a bootleg or two... but just move it to bandcamp... or your own server... or anyplace else on the internet lol. If worse comes to worse there are hosting companies out there that operate in china that will take your money....... I don't think chinese isps even know what takedown notices are. Would be a worthwhile experiment to say the least.

This is pretty much just one company commiting suicide imo, theres a lot more internets out there... Doesn't really change the music or the dynamic... between blogs, other sites, facebook, myspace, twitter... there are so many methods to expose a track/album/event/algorithm/minutiae that soundcloud can die and its just one less outlet of many.

I for one will miss the sonic diversity of soundcloud... but its not the end of the world and its kind of more an opportunity for the music blogs to step it up and for people to use twatter facespace etc again

ok so, ive been curious about this after reading on here on this thread about soundcloud doing everything you said it was doing, and, to be honest- maybe it's just me (?) but i haven't noticed anything... i dont know, please correct me if im wrong, but i dont see what the problem is if someone has put someone else's music up and soundcloud takes it down - is it more than that?


someone mentioned that you have to have official documents backing up your music? you do? is it just cuz im still very small-time that i haven't encountered this yet? i suppose that could be it, but..

Soundcloud itself is finally starting to reach outside of the walls of producer/dj/fanatic and is building a community of just "fans". With that comes the "youtube syndrome" - people uploading other peoples' music in an effort to get gets/plays/whatever to their personal account. Most of these people aren't trying to claim that the music is theres, and furthermore probably post the name of the artist that made the track.

What Dov described a la Muti is criminal. However, I do see that they will have to make some changes as they grow.. it's part of the process. Everyone bitches when something that was underground becomes more widely accepted. Let's just hope they learn from their mistakes as they grow. It looks like they're probably getting pressured by the big music companies to take down "copyrighted" material.. but I'm sure this will subside like it always does. They'll realize they can't keep up with getting proof of ownership from every label and artist out there, and it will go back to taking stuff down when someone specifically bitches about a piece of content.

As the link in the OP pointed out, this has happened multiple times in waves to the blogs, and this wave too will subside.. hopefully with as few casualties as possible on our side..

RIP A Remix Manifesto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdwN6rRU0Xk

Seems like everyone here knows what they are talking about but here is a great doc on Copyright, and other stuff. Totally embodies the Glitch Hop spirit of no rules art.

Meh, sorry this is happening but I'm not surprised. If you make a bootleg remix of someone else's work and throw it up on the net for everyone to hear, don't be surprised if you get slapped with a takedown notice. Same goes for mixes. Yeah, it sucks. I have a few mixes on SC I'd hate to see get taken down, but if it happens I'll just upload them to my own site and stream them there.

IF SC bombs and everyone leaves there will be another service available like it in a year or so. Don't freak out. I personally can't wait until media players with timestamped comments enabled become commonplace all over the net.

I got my issues sorted out mostly , just waiting on another 10 tracks that they 'hid' to be returned and they're claiming they should be live again already.
Yeah, in the past week I had one personal notice for a legit remix , then many angry Muti fans asking why we had their sets removed which I did not do, then a Muti track removed, then Muti artists getting notices about tracks they made that Muti supposedly lodged a complaint about (which I did not), then another 17 Muti tracks removed on Christmas with notice to provide legal proof of ownership withing 48 hours (therefore by Monday).

I sent a legal notice of misrepresentation of our brand and a cease and desist notice on using our brand on any complaints that we did not in fact lodge against anyone and for all further legal / copyright complaints to contact our legal dept. Also included proof of ownership of the company brand, name and trademark and a signed legal notice saying we had the right to advertise, sell and license the tunes, so everything should be fixed shortly for us.

If any of you received notice that Muti demanded the removal of tunes in your sets, I guarantee it was not done by Muti Music and apologize for any inconvenience their system has caused you.

crazy dov

First of all there is a distinction between random people uploading tracks by say Prince, and people uploading bootlegs and mixes which are an essential part of DJ/hiphop culture. And even in the first case I'm not sure what the problem is -- it's only being streamed. Yes I know it's still possible to rip it, but that's beyond the average teenybopper's capacity, and besides, there is a sky high MOUNTAIN of such tracks on youtube. I mean sometimes it seems everything ever recorded has been upped by somebody to youtube.

great video! thanks for sharing...

wow dov. That is extreme, thanking the shit outta the fact you have a legal dept. and are able to deal with these things from abroad... I think i over reacted, and misinterpreted some of this, and realise it may not be that big of a deal for a begging label... But, i does pose serious questions about how often we would have to re-write links and re upload tracks in various places...
Simply put, bite the bullet and stay true SOUNDCLOUD. If one website did it, it could start a revolution... hehe

Damn that's pretty shitty dov, yearly timing is terrible also. Cannot see any mention of this on the soundcloud blog so I guess the trying to let this pass under the radar.

Would be a terrible shame for Soundcloud to die off, can't see it happening myself any time soon, but then who saw the death of myspace coming?

I haven't read all of this so I'm sure it will render my opinions useless, but I think it's pretty bullshit to call out soundcloud for much of anything if you're a free user. (Which I am)

I've been on SC since beta and since then they've really done a huge amount for the artistic/music community.

We can all find reasons to bitch about anything, but I think it's pretty rare to find anyone, as a free user, that has actually said 'thank you' to soundcloud for hosting their tracks, connecting them with people in the community, and saving new artists the hassle of having to sort their own similar web solutions.

What Dov/Muti is going through def sounds like a serious hassle, and as a pay member and a bit of a figurehead in the music community it's something that deserves to be remedied (with relative ease). That said, it sure beats clearing samples and paying for rights to release things in a legit manor (traditionally speaking).

As a free member you can't really bitch. They've done you a service, and honestly (despite how great your tunes may be), you're likely not returning the favor just by being a member of the SC community.

All that said, I'm a fan of SC, so maybe that makes me biased, but overall they've done a lot of good over the years. Like most of us they are trying to build something and be successful in their field, often that comes at a cost. If it's one you can live with, stay logged-in or renew your subscription. If not, cancel it and sort it out on your own.

all fixed for us now, but still getting emails from DJs saying we had their sets removed

These have really been enlightening in the sense that I'm thinking differently than I was when I made the original post. It's true that Soundcloud did really redefine the game and has been a great help both on and off the internet. I just see their business model changing and not the way I'd like it personally. While it remains a fact that I'm currently a free user, I still have the right to display what I'm feeling about this. Especially since it was free users like myself that put it where it is and transformed it. I've always really like the versatility of the embed function and the power of their live streaming capabilities and I've always maintained that when I make money from my music - I will get myself the Pro account. I think it's fair to say that although I'm not the one directly making their code and paying for their servers, that I still am involved in the community that has arisen from and helped shape Soundcloud. I wanted to see what other people thought about this issue after reading the article I posted and I got a different perspective.

I think that the model Soundcloud was raised on is probably a defining moment for live streaming audio and has really set a high bar for any sites that come in after this. By no means am I planning on closing my account until I am absolutely forced to. I am however, allowed to voice my displeasure with the changes in their policy being that I really enjoy remixing old NES and SNES music and because of their new policy, this is now in in direct violation. Thankfully, my remixes are not the end all so I can just make sure that I don't use it for any further remixing. Which is kind of a shame since Glitch Hop itself to me is almost personified by its remixes.

My Tron bootleg got to the #1 spot on Soundcloud before it got removed. But I'm sure it was Disney, not them. I think that what Dov is going through is ridiculous, on the other hand it is nothing more than what's expected for people like me doing massive bootlegs. Any major website is going to have to pull stuff like that.

Sweet I still have a copy of the Tron Bootleg that track is sick.

Agreed. I think it was liability involved. Also, Tron was pretty fucking massive.

Now it's confirmed, soundcloud algorythms are going to your mixes and mashups down :

http://blog.soundcloud.com/2011/01/05/q-and-a-content-identification-system/

2012 lads...

They are being coy as to whether they're going to start aggressively nuking mixes. If they get a takedown request they will, but the question is whether they're going to pre-emptively block mix uploads that their content identification software flags.

I havent seen or heard of any of those claims in my circles...

Imo Soundcloud is still great and friendly. And I hate seeing to increasingly heap of shit-bootlegs by people who just stick a wobble under any song. so yeah if you ripped it off, pay the price.

I just got a takedown notice because my mixed contained the track "Siren - Summertime in Oakland".

Well, shucks.