In the age of digital streaming and content sharing, we come across this problem of copyright infringement. Record labels want to protect their investment in an artist and artists want to make as much money as possible from their music. This is why you can’t post your homemade music video to “Hotline Bling” to YouTube; the copyright owner doesn’t want people being drawn to your video, they want people to be drawn to their video.
This is why indie songwriter, Sarah Hollins‘ cover of DNCE’s “Cake By The Ocean” was forcibly removed from her Facebook page this past week. Universal Music issued a complaint against Sarah’s cover on Facebook and got it successfully removed.
One might ask themselves, what was Universal really losing with Sarah’s cover existing cover on the internet? The video had amassed 500 views in a space of six months, which for a small indie songwriter, is a sizable feat. Though in comparison to the music video for “Cake By The Ocean” on YouTube racking up 300 million views….it is not that much, and certainly wasn’t drawing any of the crowd from the original post.
So truly why are record labels cracking down so harshly? What’s the point? What’s in it for them? What do hegemonic record labels like Universal stand to gain by squashing what can hardly be called competition? If anything, small covers such as Sarah’s are free promotion for the artist.
As of current, Universals strategy leaves us bewildered and confused as to what their motivation is. Will we ever understand? Will they ever lift the curtain and reveal to us their masterplan for copyright infringement? Probably not.
Another artist who has had his cover videos removed by Facebook is Matt Anthony. His version of Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop The Feeling” amassed over 20,000 views before being taken down. Check out his killer drum rendition of Tiësto’s edit of Dzeko & Torres and Delaney Jane’s “L’Amour Toujours” below before it’s too late.
H/T: Dancing Astronaut