About a week ago, SoundCloud started taking down music from artists signed to Sony Music. This came after negotiations fell through between them, as Sony was upset about SoundCloud’s “lack of monetization opportunities.” While SoundCloud was able to ink a deal with Warner Music, it has been unable to reach compromises with the other big record labels, Sony and Universal. The failure to reach a deal with Sony prompted them to remove music from 7 of their artists, namely Adele, Miguel and Kelly Clarkson. The list of impacted artists has now expanded to Martin Garrix, whose collaboration with Usher, ‘Don’t Look Down‘, was just removed from the site.
Takedowns of major artists’ music is not unprecedented on SoundCloud, as artists such as Knife Party saw five of their tracks be pulled down due to copyright reasons. The removal of ‘Don’t Look Down’ can likely be attributed to the precarious situation with Sony, however, as the track was licensed to RCA Records. This is a division of Sony Music Entertainment, who distributed the track. Garrix seems to be another victim in the ongoing battle between these two companies, which threatens to affect artists across the globe.
Garrix has expressed his frustration on Twitter, saying:
. @soundcloud why do you keep removing my own tracks from my soundcloud? not very nice
— MARTIN GARRIX (@MartinGarrix) May 17, 2015
@KevinR0607 no idea Soundcloud is being stupid, talking with the label now to get it back online — MARTIN GARRIX (@MartinGarrix) May 17, 2015