TV Girl: Reaction to WMG Copyright claim
(Photo by Brandon Tauszik) |
TV Girl sent out an email to all their most loyal friends within the music industry today, in order to clear a few issues up regarding recent copyright infringement claims.
I could ramble on for a while explaining whats happened but I'll leave it to TV Girl to explain themselves.
One thing we'll say is this. We NEVER post on 1FTP, unless it's news of new music. Reviews are big no-no's and so are covers and remixes, unless they are exceptional. This said, we find it extremely important that people learn the true extent of what some large scale record companies are doing.
We'd also like everyone to understand that these so called record companies are growing increasingly obsolete. This is down to us, the bloggers. The true music lovers. The people who start with nothing but the love for the music and the passion to inform others, without pay, and continue to do so.
The whole blogosphere needs to give itself a huge pat on the back because we're re-inventing the record industry for the people.
Read TV Girls Statement below:
"This is Trung and Brad from TV Girl. Today we were unpleasantly surprised to find that the Warner Music Group started making good on their promise to remove our music from the web. Several blogs reached out to us after receiving takedown notices regarding our music. We noticed that you posted our music, so we thought we would reach out to give you a heads up and give our two cents.
"Just to clarify, TV Girl had nothing to do with the takedown notice. We have no affiliation with Warner Music Group or any other songwriting association or record label. The copyright claim is on behalf of Todd Rundgren for the use of a sample from his song “Hello, It’s Me”.
Even though it’s a bummer that our particular song is being silenced in this way, we feel that this is representative of a larger issue that will only get worse as blogs continue to gain influence over an increasingly desperate music industry.
When the song started getting really popular late last year, we reached out to the copyright holders to get the sample cleared so that we could avoid this mess. Their responses were completely unreasonable. To give you an idea, one company demanded 100% of all proceeds from any money made, in addition to us paying a $5,000 clearance fee. Basically they were saying: “Fuck you, we have all the power, either pay us or take the song down.” Because we weren’t making any money off the song anyways, and because it had already spread around the net thanks to blogs, we declined their offer.
The fact is, because of the amazing independent promotional capacities of music blogs and sites like Bandcamp, it’s increasingly unnecessary for bands like us to align ourselves with major labels or music companies like WMG. Our use of the sample easily falls under the protection of “fair use”. WMG’s actions are a rather blatant attempt to bully independent artists and blogs into playing by their rules. It’s easy to see tactics like this becoming more common as the industry continues to shift.
Obviously, we wouldn’t recommend keeping the song up if there’s any chance of your site being affected. We just thought that you and your readers might want to know about this issue as it directly affects every band, blog, and music fan operating outside the mainstream music machine.
Thank for listening, and feel free to post about or reprint this e-mail. We are truly grateful to all the blogs and fans that have supported us."
- Trung and Brad
TV Girl
TV Girl = half-wit crybabies.
ReplyDeleteEVERYBODY knows you can't sample other people's songs. DUH!
Did you even read their statement? or did you just jump to a conclusion? "EVERYBODY knows you can't sample other people's song.... for FREE", your comment should have said. TV Girl also know that too by the looks of their statement. The issue isn't even about sampling for FREE, it's about record company greed.
ReplyDelete$5,000 clearance fee, all proceeds.... How on earth is that acceptable? The old corporate dinosaurs dont have a clue where to turn & are clinging onto that fruitful (greed) period they had back before a little thing called the internet appeared.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more ^
ReplyDeleteI get that people are picking up on that they shouldn't have it for nothing, The band surely are aware of that, they even stated it in an interview on this very website. http://www.1forthepeople.com/2011/04/introducing-tv-girl.html.
A reasonable figure would have left all parties happy, including, I can only presume, Tod Rundgren.
yes, the fees are punitive. so what? when people steal from you, you have the right to be a dick about it.
ReplyDeletealso, if there's no profits, there's no proceeds, so -- not a big deal.
the fact is: this was completely avoidable. you don't break the law by stealing music, then ask the rights holder to give you a break. the license fee would probably be much friendlier if it was worked out ahead of time. which is THE POINT. EVERYBODY KNOWS YOU CAN'T SAMPLE PEOPLES SONGS FOR FREE. so clear it ahead of time and if you don't get clearance, don't use the sample.
to all you who've replied in their defense, raise your hand if you receive royalties for your work? let's see.