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As someone who has used Udio, uploading portions of my original A Cappella recordings into Udio's software and building songs based on my recordings and lyrics... Udio has the right to use my vocals to train their AI. Personally, I'm okay with this trade off. I get instrumentation for my previously copyrighted A Cappella songs and Udio gets to train their AI with my vocals. Seems fair. In fact, I've already heard two other songs made by other Udio users with my voice.
Here's a question. What if I use AI, Udio to put songs together, then I use Tunecore to distribute the songs AND I sign up for their AI protection with my AI produced songs? How does that work? Ai, using Ai, producing AI, while being protected from AI and partnering with distributor's AI to make money from AI's, AI, AIiiiiiiiiiiiii.
I feel like it’s their solution to ripping off artists in a world where AI derivatives are a bigger market than original works for various ‘consumers of music’. I’m opting out of TuneCore entirely.
It should be straight out illegal to have a TOS that says the TOS may change without your notice and you automatically agree to the new TOS WITHOUT HAVING EVER BEEN SHOWN IT. Saying it's up to you to check doesn't give you any ability to disagree, because by the time you check, even if you check every two minutes, it's already changed by the time you read it and have therefore agreed to it. There is literally no option to agree to the new TOS or cancel the service. I'm actually kind of surprised that such "contracts" are valid. Surely you can't be held to have agreed to something you were never asked about? What if they changed the TOS to say "you hereby appoint TuneCore the sole beneficiary of your will and relinquish any further will-making rights"?
yeah I have a problem with the mechanism whereby TOS contracts are made binding but since it's basically the tenet upon which companies like Microsoft were built, it gets carte blanche legally. There are numerous instances in Contract Law where the underlying agreement is unenforceable. What consideration is being given to the user to bind themselves to such draconian practices . The user has no ability to negotiate any of these terms.
Before I get torched, yes I get it , it's a take it or leave it. You're agreeing to these terms "by your use" and if you disagree your best tool is to simply not use the service, but to hold these things out as sacrosanct representations of "agreements" between the parties is suspect at best. These are not agreements.
At this point I think all artists should leave these so called "distributors" and streaming services then just sell dtc on their own sites. Social media should just be used for promotion and engagement with fans
totally agree, artists are being screwed over by the gatekeepers in this new tech enabled music industry. Between the labels and big tech there are some wolves out there...
@@13adLucEnt social media /=/ streaming services (but that wasn't your point). Other than that i'd agree, but I'd reckon the problem is the big streaming services have the masses already hooked. Only the 'superfan' would try and buy music directly.
I agree with this, but the problem is that no one will ever discover these artists unless they have a really strong and consistent social media presence. Even then, people primarily use streaming services and expect to find artists there. Using distributors is actually a good thing, but you do need to know the legal stuff to avoid the cons. We live in times where almost anybody can blow up as a musician thanks to the DIY possibility of deciding how you're gonna present yourself and your music. This was never possible 10+ years ago.
The problem with this is that some scumbag will just upload your music, have it scanned by ContentID, and then claim ownership of it. This sort of thing is happening a lot. You do gain some tangible protection by going through a distributor - I would not use Tunecore though. The whole system is dysfunctional really.
“We’re going to protect you from unauthorized use of your music.” “Oh wow. How are you going to do that?” “We’re going to authorize those uses.” “… so it’s still being used without my consent?” “Yes, but now it’s authorized.”
I'm amazed that it's legal to draft up a contract that says "We're going to protect you from AI" in big letters on the cover - and then have the "protection" be signing away all your rights regarding AI
Yep. We occasionally think there is some intrinsic characteristic of a contract that makes it ‘legal’ or not. Once a ‘contract’ is affirmed via signing or whatever, it’s pretty much legal; this is essentially how social norms and ‘soft trust’ protocols guide the true fabric of law. Of course , enforcement is a whole other story.
You Dear Lady, are a TREASURE! Thank you for this video and the heads up, I will be more diligent about reading my contracts and trying to understand all of the implications of what is being said ;~)) I may have to end my relationship with Distrokid, but I have not yet watched your video on their system (I have been with them for 10 years). What I learn in that video will certainly influence my decision to stay/go!!! Keep fighting the fight, you are most appreciated!
15:49 now, HE’S RIGHT. To ME, it was obvious what tunecore was up to. I spent years in law school because I knew not to trust the music business or lawyers. Unfortunately, this also made me not want to be a professional entertainer at all because it’s just scam after scam, once you see that even the RICH people you see aren’t rich. Sorta like learning Santa isn’t real but you in your twenties. Anyway, I can tell you this from my unique experience. I went to USC law, which is in S. Central LA. Unlike other classmates interested in entertainment law, I had the advantage of actually having a skillset of an artist, so in S. Central, I linked up with a collective known as Project Blowed at the same time. This is an historic and important hip hop collective. Also was a Hollywood extra and did improv at a top improv school, bboy on TV, etc. Why? Lawyers don’t understand artists, and I didn’t want to lose that. What the dude in the vid is saying at 15:49 is indicative of the converse: artists seem to ABSOLUTELY not understand how the suits in the music biz move AT ALL. They know they’re untrustworthy, that’s it. They’re bad actors, but they don’t know how the actors act badly. It’s akin to knowing a trained fighter WILL hurt you, but you can’t defend yourself because you don’t know HOW they will hurt you. The language in that email tingled my legal side and told me “oh, this is an exclusivity agreement. I bet they finna marinate it in some ‘heirs and assigns’ sprinkled with some ‘subsidiaries’ along with some language about tech that as yet hasn’t been invented.” And sure enough… But it’s written by lawyers who know artists are both a) untrained in the business side of things, and b) are terrified of the coming Ai landscape. To me? This is intentionally vague and ambiguous. Lawyers know who to very specifically word something so that it means one thing to the layperson and the exact opposite to the specialized. It’s a difficult thing to do while avoiding fraud in the inducement. This is suspicious. Like, if I were the lawyer for TUNECORE? I’d advise them not to send that email out. It’s clear in my OPINION what they’re trying to do, and it isn’t good. Red flag 🚩 number☝🏾 is simple: Tunecore is a distribution management service, not a rights and digital asset management company. This email sounds like they’re offering legal services, and we KNOW that’s not their job. That’s what initially had me like “wait, what are they up to?” Because this feels a lot like a peanuts gang “Lucy with the football 🏈” moment.
I mean... fucking yeah, but fucking why, my dude. Reading the contract before you sign it is fucking day one. If an entire industry has a reputation of being easy to swindle, while it absolutely doesn't make this kind of shit ok to do, at some point you have to say "so you knew to read the contract, you've been told countless times not to trust randoms, and you still just signed it?" fucking don't you? I don't like how close to victim blaming this is getting, but come the fuck on.
Distributors should be outlawed. If you're a musician there should just be a large Union type library organization where you just sign your name on a list, and they assign your ISBN # +website+info ,and folks can just look each other up and buy and negotiate direct. Libraries are free and yet musicians still getting ripped EVERY single step of the way. How thats legal? I dont know, oh yeah, they make up the law and force you to sign...lol
So not only will they own your music for life, but any legal matters they take 50% off the top as well. They are basically robbing people right in front of their faces and not even embarrassed about it. WTF? This is why I stopped putting music on digital distributors. Ya, I won't get my music released, but at least I won't get robbed in the process. Everyone should just leave all these distributors completely, and watch how the industry will go into panic mode. It's not worth it anymore because all these digital distributors want to do is rob people out of their property and own everything from people.
Sadly the incoming government in the US is about removing government oversight and allowing corporations more freedoms. I'm not a US resident btw, Australia. But yes, protecting citizens from corporations is something they should do. For example here we have 'Australian Consumer Law' - Apple cannot just offer 12 months warranty on new items and 90 days on repairs like they do in the US. That's not acceptable given what they cost and how long people would expect them to last.
@@darwiniandude 3 different things going on in this comment.. no tax on tips could switch up the music marketing platform in US. Or encourage independents development.
Thank You for taking the time to read through these terms and warn artist what these vague terms actually mean. We are lucky to have these resources conveyed to us in plain english for no extra cost. It's people like you and Ben that are trying to make artist more informed in their contracts. What is your website? I would def like to have a Entertainment lawyer I can actually trust in the future.
Thank you for being an advocate for the people who are trying to get into writing and producing music. We need a lot more advocates in numerous areas. Sine COVID, I have seen a huge jump in rich people taking advantage of little people just trying to pay their bills. These wealthy people are creating these corrupt contracts to put people under the bus and essentially smother them. The people we put in government are not protecting the people, even though this should be part of their job description.
So, the "product / feature" they are selling is AI protection, the cost for me to use this product is to hand over full rights to my music. There is no doubt they would use my music to train their AI - that's their main aim. The duration of the contact is the full copyright life because (as far as I know) you can't untrain AI.
*Top Music Attorney* thank you for this video. Their public FAQ states: How can I opt into TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program? TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program is currently invite-only. If you didn't receive an email from us with the subject line "Protect Your Content by Opting-in to TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program", you haven't been invited at this time. We'll regularly send new invites for TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program program to eligible artists. Please keep an eye out for future communications from us for your opportunity to opt in. If you were invited and chose to opt in, you will receive an email confirmation from us when we receive your opt-in. What are the requirements? Please note: Meeting these eligibility requirements does not guarantee that you will be invited to TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program, but you must meet them to be considered for an invitation. Currently, the only requirement is that your preferred language is English. We will be including other languages later, so stay tuned! What are the benefits of opting into TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program? Exclusive Access: This invite-only program offers artists a chance to be part of pioneering AI and ML projects in the music industry. Collaboration: Opens doors for collaboration with industry leaders, other artists, and future partners, fostering a community of innovation and learning. Contribution: Enables artists to contribute their unique perspectives and creativity, shaping the future of music through AI and ML. Ongoing Expansion: We’ll continue adding artists and new opportunities to the program to keep it fresh and interesting! Does opting in guarantee I'll have access to these AI and ML opportunities? No, there is no guarantee that you'll have access to any specific opportunities within the program for any or all of your catalog. By opting in, you're telling us you are interested, and we will present you with opportunities that make sense for you as they become available. What can I expect once I opt-in to TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program? Once you've opted in, you'll hear from us when we have an opportunity for you! You won't need to take any action on your own, we’ll reach out to you. How can I see any AI & Data Protection Program projects I'm active in? You'll receive an email from us to tell you once you've been included in a project, as well as how your work is being used in that project. You can't see this information on your TuneCore Dashboard yet, but we’re hoping to have that available to you in the near future. How will I be compensated for my participation in these opportunities? Compensation will vary depending on the opportunity. Compensation information will be included when we send you details about an opportunity.
This and similar companies need a class action lawsuit against their sneaky arrogant behaviour. What do you mean by click on this and you are getting exactly the shit you wanted to get protected from? WTF? That very process is enough reason for TuneCore (or the others) to pay Trillions of dollars of compensation to the musicians and producers! The CEO should be in Jail for the rest of his life, no bail, no parole, he signed away his right to walk outside.
thing I noticed as a musician is my music is getting tonnes of low length plays added to instagram posts but I dont get paid for it. is this how thry work now?
So if you happen to have a hit song, they already own it! So they get all the money! Original artists become slaves and pawns. Ah, the benefits of slavery?
So let me get this straight, music industry can't get your rights unless you sign them over. So government creates copyright streaming laws that prevent you from streaming your music unless you hold the rights and go through a distributor. The distributor pays you as the rights holder a share of your revenue. So music industry buys up all distributors, makes up these contracts, that means you sign away your rights, thus they get the rights, they own the distributor and have deals with and own the streaming platforms. Yet no one is screaming monopoly? I'm sure this sounds like a class action lawsuit just waiting for some hungry lawyers willing to take on the music industry for a big payday. I wonder how deep this rabbit hole goes and how many artists are affected by these shady backdoor deals.
LANDR has something similar, but it’s a separate thing you have to opt in for that’s not tied to your entire catalog or your full subscription. At least, that’s how they are fronting it.
I'm not sure how this popped up for me, but I found it fascinating. I guess we are all aware of theft in the music business which has been going on as long as music has existed. It seems that it has become absurdly complex for a guy who just wants to write songs and play his guitar, hoping that someone will like what he has created. And perhaps make a few bucks doing it. I just retired from an entirely different performing art less than two years ago. ALL creation in that field is derivative and policing outright theft just isn't worth the trouble. After watching this, I feel fortunate that there aren't as many of us as there are of them (music creators). Thank you for a highly informative video!
Question: What aggregates do you if any recommend? Pickings are slim and all I hear is what each does wrong and what to avoid. What are the lesser evils to get music out to our people? Thank you for your work
All too often these companies update their terms of service and send you the notice later. They never include the details and make you look up the entire contract again. Sadly it's never one document but rather a document full of links which are also full of links to bury their mischef.
Great video. Again you draw our attention to the way big tech is working out ways to own and control our intellectual property. It feels that the spaces we have to promote and release our music are actually becoming smaller and smaller if we want any control over that music. In many ways this is no different from signing your in perpetuity publishing and recording deals that caught so many artists from the 1950’s onwards. And are still prevalent today. Just this time they want to suck up even your kids little song they made for grandma and put out on Spotify. More dangerous though is that they could claim exclusive rights to your music potentially destroying your ability to sell your own music for sync or even to let other artists cover it. Please keep up the good work.x
Tunecore knows what they are doing. They know that A) people don't read Terms of Service documents, and B) That people will rush to accept something presented to them as protecting them from AI. It is deceptive, deliberate, and malicious. There is no ignorance or incompetence behind it.
Just wanted to thank you and let you know you are a real one. You don’t have to get on here and let us know what these bad contracts really mean, but you do. Know that its appreciated.
Well, technically they are protecting against unauthorized use of your music. By legally allowing anyone to use it - there you go no more unauthorized use. Like the other day the company, that said no more work stressed colleagues, because we don't want a stressful company environment. So we fired those colleagues.
16:20 my advice: Use a distro company, and then go somewhere ELSE to pay a subscription to a service to protect your IP. Thinking that the distro company is where you should get your legal protection from is sorta like buying gas station sushi. Sushi isn’t what they do at a gas station. It’s actually worse. It’s like asking Amway for a good lawyer to protect you against being targeted by financial scammers, and then for Amway being like “Oh, hire US! We have JUST THE THING!” Told a homie who was being scouted by universal, I said “so you have a lawyer?” She said “Oh, the label gave me one.” Aaaaand you’ve never heard her sing a note. I bet she wrote a ton of “work-for-hire” songs that charted tho.
Basically, the opt-in is a binding legal contract that gives them the right to do whatever to your music absolutely whenever and however they please, as well as the right to sublicense other entities to do the same. They could at least provide some free baby-oil after artists opt-in.
We saw the optin button on the email, total outrageous, sad when the tech company is arrogant and thinking that we a stupid! pathetic exploitation of our music bye bye tunecore 🤯🤬
Suggestion: As a music industry Lawyer, I thought that you would be interested in some of the ideas in a podcast I just watched if you haven't already seen it. It's an episode of The Factually podcast with Adam Conover and the episode is called "Chokepoint capitalism with Cory Doctorow" they very briefly specifically mention the music industry, but a lot of the things they cover can also be applied to the music industry as well.
As a musician. One should always beware of someone/thing that says they can take care of the business side of music It's probably going to take advantage of you Be vigilant
Not even surprised TuneCore would do this. TC has been a terrible place where music gets stolen all the time and put up there, CryptTheRapper bought a beat but someone took that beat and uploaded his rap over it to tune core and claimed the whole beat.
WHAT? Is there ANY distributor I can trust any longer, then? I'm not licensing away my IP for businesses to mass-produce cheap knockoffs. Music is an bonding activity that is meant to be shared and practiced between people. Replacing the human enjoyment with a machine is ridiculous. I have to search deep in my mind to find anything resembling this kind of evil. Because that's exactly what it is. This is evil.
As soon as the model is trained on your music, the model is so large that there is NO way to know if and to what degree your input was used in any subsequent output. So I’m not sure how they make any kind of payment to an individual, and I’m assuming that IF you get a payout, it would have to be divided among ALL who opt in…so Spotify payments will look huge compared to these.
Sounds like they are making a music making AI under the original guise of an anti-pirating AI. Once they get enough people to opt in, they "fail", "sell the company" and they sell it to a "different company" using it for the exact purpose it was meant to be against but, everyone just grandfathered their rights to an AI. (not sure if that was a correct use of "grandfathered" there or not.)
Unlike many, I always read what I'm signing and I remember reading the Terms relating to this. What I can't remember is whether or not I opted in! I’m now hoping I didn't! Thanks for highlighting this issue. It wears me out to think that you just can't trust anyone these days.
Your music being used by AI is of an infinitesimal factor compared to what beat makers steal from real instrument musicians. The last 30 years of music made this possible.
Thanks so much for this headsUp. I think that it us really strange how they're obliged, by law, to notify you (their client) of an update on the Terms of Service, aka _ the Contract. Doesn't US federal Law demand they do that ?
On that ambiguous note they make, that you comment about a couple of times _ they are "entitled to 50% , except for fees" and sth else.. , I am wondering if they are not referring to the fees they themselves would charge the client, by doing their job _ of defending said client, if AI would use the client's music. I'm wondering if they would keep the 50% plus the court & legal fees. Could that be it ? ( thanks again)
It would be useful if the industry could get together and agree a fee per second for use of music for AI learning, plus a % commission based on future earnings based on the music used as the foundation for the AI generated music. Currently, if you want to use someone's music in your project, e.g. in a film, you have to pay royalties based on distribution, audience viewing etc., WHETHER YOU ACTUALLY MAKE MONEY OR NOT! This has to be applied to AI LLMs but also with a revenue split on future royalties - the AI developers may say that they can't tell who's music "influenced" which AI piece of music, but this could easily be built in to the systems, OR, everyone who's music you have used get a cut of the pool of revenue going forward, but good luck trying to go down a flat shared revenue model with the Majors!
I bet they want eternal rights because once they use your music to train their AI, it would be very expensive to go back and re-train the AI without your music. It's not like deleting a record from a database, unfortunately.
I have a couple of thoughts on this. 1. Their approach to ai is wrong. Everyone new who tries to do something like this without innovating from here on out is going to fail, unless what they're trying to do is package a dataset. 2. Tunecore just sounds shady in general, and I wouldn't deal with them. 3. We need to stop thinking about ai this way, in terms of raw diffusion processes, and start thinking seriously about notation, and making new kinds of music possible. Things that can't be done without heavy computation. This is where the future is. 4. Tools aimed at amateurs aren't where the innovation is going to happen. I've tried talking them all. Nobody's listening. 5. Cloud processing is a privacy concern with ai no matter who you are. And it shouldn't be necessary. 6. The future's going to come from open source. It's going to come soon, and it's going to change everything. I'm going to put some time in on something this weekend, see if I get anywhere. Singsong's aren't difficult to build. But one that's actually useful to musicians that doesn't violate anyone's rights or privacy? I have a couple of ideas on how to do that. But either way, I think it's time t start thinking about ai, who needs it, and what it's good for in a completely different way.
So if I read between the lines; they are asking for the rights to own your stuff. They are going to use those rights to use your music in order to create technology they stand to gain from. This is all under the pretext that they may find your music (now theirs) being used elsewhere and may sue in your stead. Out of all of this all you get is the leftovers from them possibly suing somebody. I'm assuming they're only going to go after things that they will actually make money on. This is a whole scam. It is a scam from top to bottom. You stand to gain nothing from it but lose everything if your music is your life
Interesting. Are they getting the rights so that they can decide what the deal is with the sampling party, then go ahead with that without getting back to the artist. "Let tunecore sort this out and take 50%".
50/50 is a red flag, still a grand sign of disrespect. If they were to really offer you something that respected your creative rights and content, it would lean towards the artist side in maybe 70/30 and the end result of any decision making would fall on you consenting. Regarding useage, or anything related. Protection would be just that and if it resulted in them making some money we would be in business to benefit one another, most of the see contracts treat musicians or creators like we’re nothing without them and lucky to be offered such opportunities. We should be valued and respected for what we bring to people’s lives versus a company’s wallet.
Idle speculation: It seems like the kind of thing that would be done by a company whose real clients are the software companies that forgot to get permission to use music they found on the internet to train their AI models, and now they're sweating bullets. Still speculating: And a skeezy distribution platform might seize this opportunity to generate income by partnering with the AI companies who would pay them for coming up with a way of retroactively indemnifying the AI companies against legal action. That would be incredibly skeezy if it were the case. I'm not a lawyer, but it sounds like if there's a class-action lawsuit in the works, then anybody who opted in to this might be unable to collect a settlement.
Isnt it a clear chucpe? They are selling you an AI protection and removing your IP via an infinitly licensed unknown AI tool at the same time! Genius! 🙂
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Let’s do it!
As someone who has used Udio, uploading portions of my original A Cappella recordings into Udio's software and building songs based on my recordings and lyrics... Udio has the right to use my vocals to train their AI. Personally, I'm okay with this trade off. I get instrumentation for my previously copyrighted A Cappella songs and Udio gets to train their AI with my vocals. Seems fair. In fact, I've already heard two other songs made by other Udio users with my voice.
Here's a question. What if I use AI, Udio to put songs together, then I use Tunecore to distribute the songs AND I sign up for their AI protection with my AI produced songs? How does that work? Ai, using Ai, producing AI, while being protected from AI and partnering with distributor's AI to make money from AI's, AI, AIiiiiiiiiiiiii.
I feel like it’s their solution to ripping off artists in a world where AI derivatives are a bigger market than original works for various ‘consumers of music’. I’m opting out of TuneCore entirely.
A hard no 🙄
Note to self: avoid Tunecore 😬
@@joellebrodeur1015 avoid distrokid
Avoid distrokid
RouteNote for the win
i was that stupid, a'm on tunecore ! now 4 weeks to go to end......never sub now agian !
And spread the word.
It should be straight out illegal to have a TOS that says the TOS may change without your notice and you automatically agree to the new TOS WITHOUT HAVING EVER BEEN SHOWN IT. Saying it's up to you to check doesn't give you any ability to disagree, because by the time you check, even if you check every two minutes, it's already changed by the time you read it and have therefore agreed to it. There is literally no option to agree to the new TOS or cancel the service. I'm actually kind of surprised that such "contracts" are valid. Surely you can't be held to have agreed to something you were never asked about? What if they changed the TOS to say "you hereby appoint TuneCore the sole beneficiary of your will and relinquish any further will-making rights"?
contract of repeated adhesion, lol
yeah I have a problem with the mechanism whereby TOS contracts are made binding but since it's basically the tenet upon which companies like Microsoft were built, it gets carte blanche legally. There are numerous instances in Contract Law where the underlying agreement is unenforceable. What consideration is being given to the user to bind themselves to such draconian practices . The user has no ability to negotiate any of these terms.
Before I get torched, yes I get it , it's a take it or leave it. You're agreeing to these terms "by your use" and if you disagree your best tool is to simply not use the service, but to hold these things out as sacrosanct representations of "agreements" between the parties is suspect at best. These are not agreements.
At this point I think all artists should leave these so called "distributors" and streaming services then just sell dtc on their own sites. Social media should just be used for promotion and engagement with fans
totally agree, artists are being screwed over by the gatekeepers in this new tech enabled music industry. Between the labels and big tech there are some wolves out there...
@@13adLucEnt social media /=/ streaming services (but that wasn't your point).
Other than that i'd agree, but I'd reckon the problem is the big streaming services have the masses already hooked.
Only the 'superfan' would try and buy music directly.
I agree with this, but the problem is that no one will ever discover these artists unless they have a really strong and consistent social media presence. Even then, people primarily use streaming services and expect to find artists there. Using distributors is actually a good thing, but you do need to know the legal stuff to avoid the cons. We live in times where almost anybody can blow up as a musician thanks to the DIY possibility of deciding how you're gonna present yourself and your music. This was never possible 10+ years ago.
@@13adLucEnt I currently try to support any artist I can directly.
The problem with this is that some scumbag will just upload your music, have it scanned by ContentID, and then claim ownership of it. This sort of thing is happening a lot. You do gain some tangible protection by going through a distributor - I would not use Tunecore though. The whole system is dysfunctional really.
“We’re going to protect you from unauthorized use of your music.”
“Oh wow. How are you going to do that?”
“We’re going to authorize those uses.”
“… so it’s still being used without my consent?”
“Yes, but now it’s authorized.”
I'm amazed that it's legal to draft up a contract that says "We're going to protect you from AI" in big letters on the cover - and then have the "protection" be signing away all your rights regarding AI
Of course it is. But this is the sewer we’re all swimming in at the moment.
Yep. We occasionally think there is some intrinsic characteristic of a contract that makes it ‘legal’ or not. Once a ‘contract’ is affirmed via signing or whatever, it’s pretty much legal; this is essentially how social norms and ‘soft trust’ protocols guide the true fabric of law. Of course , enforcement is a whole other story.
You Dear Lady, are a TREASURE! Thank you for this video and the heads up, I will be more diligent about reading my contracts and trying to understand all of the implications of what is being said ;~)) I may have to end my relationship with Distrokid, but I have not yet watched your video on their system (I have been with them for 10 years). What I learn in that video will certainly influence my decision to stay/go!!! Keep fighting the fight, you are most appreciated!
15:49 now, HE’S RIGHT. To ME, it was obvious what tunecore was up to. I spent years in law school because I knew not to trust the music business or lawyers. Unfortunately, this also made me not want to be a professional entertainer at all because it’s just scam after scam, once you see that even the RICH people you see aren’t rich. Sorta like learning Santa isn’t real but you in your twenties.
Anyway, I can tell you this from my unique experience. I went to USC law, which is in S. Central LA. Unlike other classmates interested in entertainment law, I had the advantage of actually having a skillset of an artist, so in S. Central, I linked up with a collective known as Project Blowed at the same time. This is an historic and important hip hop collective. Also was a Hollywood extra and did improv at a top improv school, bboy on TV, etc. Why?
Lawyers don’t understand artists, and I didn’t want to lose that.
What the dude in the vid is saying at 15:49 is indicative of the converse: artists seem to ABSOLUTELY not understand how the suits in the music biz move AT ALL. They know they’re untrustworthy, that’s it. They’re bad actors, but they don’t know how the actors act badly. It’s akin to knowing a trained fighter WILL hurt you, but you can’t defend yourself because you don’t know HOW they will hurt you.
The language in that email tingled my legal side and told me “oh, this is an exclusivity agreement. I bet they finna marinate it in some ‘heirs and assigns’ sprinkled with some ‘subsidiaries’ along with some language about tech that as yet hasn’t been invented.” And sure enough…
But it’s written by lawyers who know artists are both a) untrained in the business side of things, and b) are terrified of the coming Ai landscape.
To me? This is intentionally vague and ambiguous. Lawyers know who to very specifically word something so that it means one thing to the layperson and the exact opposite to the specialized. It’s a difficult thing to do while avoiding fraud in the inducement.
This is suspicious. Like, if I were the lawyer for TUNECORE? I’d advise them not to send that email out. It’s clear in my OPINION what they’re trying to do, and it isn’t good.
Red flag 🚩 number☝🏾 is simple: Tunecore is a distribution management service, not a rights and digital asset management company. This email sounds like they’re offering legal services, and we KNOW that’s not their job. That’s what initially had me like “wait, what are they up to?” Because this feels a lot like a peanuts gang “Lucy with the football 🏈” moment.
I mean... fucking yeah, but fucking why, my dude. Reading the contract before you sign it is fucking day one. If an entire industry has a reputation of being easy to swindle, while it absolutely doesn't make this kind of shit ok to do, at some point you have to say "so you knew to read the contract, you've been told countless times not to trust randoms, and you still just signed it?" fucking don't you? I don't like how close to victim blaming this is getting, but come the fuck on.
Distributors should be outlawed.
If you're a musician there should just be a large Union type library organization where you just sign your name on a list, and they assign your ISBN # +website+info ,and folks can just look each other up and buy and negotiate direct.
Libraries are free and yet musicians still getting ripped EVERY single step of the way. How thats legal? I dont know, oh yeah, they make up the law and force you to sign...lol
I saw this on Benn's channel. I hope the platform we are all on right now never adds this to the TOS. Thank you for your video.
Agreed
Something told me not to use tune core. Now I'm concerned about the others.
You should be. Even Bandcamp has become an unhealthy place to post your work.
Tunecore, used to be based in North Carolina. They sold their operations. (Tunecore owns Reverb Nation)
They're now based in Singapore.
I have been wondering about this. It’s not just TuneCore doing this and everyone should be vigilant. Great video.
Can we finally agree that putting music on streaming services is a bad idea for artists these days?
Absolutely
So not only will they own your music for life, but any legal matters they take 50% off the top as well.
They are basically robbing people right in front of their faces and not even embarrassed about it. WTF?
This is why I stopped putting music on digital distributors. Ya, I won't get my music released, but at least I won't get robbed in the process.
Everyone should just leave all these distributors completely, and watch how the industry will go into panic mode. It's not worth it anymore because all these digital distributors
want to do is rob people out of their property and own everything from people.
It will definitely be more than 50% after all legal expenses have been recouped. It could be closer to 80 or 90 percent if they get really creative.
The Government needs to step in.
Sadly the incoming government in the US is about removing government oversight and allowing corporations more freedoms. I'm not a US resident btw, Australia. But yes, protecting citizens from corporations is something they should do. For example here we have 'Australian Consumer Law' - Apple cannot just offer 12 months warranty on new items and 90 days on repairs like they do in the US. That's not acceptable given what they cost and how long people would expect them to last.
@@darwiniandude 3 different things going on in this comment.. no tax on tips could switch up the music marketing platform in US. Or encourage independents development.
in a month, there wont BE a government
I would assume the government as probably looking at these agreements as a source of inspiration for future legislation
@@darwiniandude Then if you're not a US citizen why should I listen to you? Good luck with Australia
Thank You for taking the time to read through these terms and warn artist what these vague terms actually mean. We are lucky to have these resources conveyed to us in plain english for no extra cost. It's people like you and Ben that are trying to make artist more informed in their contracts. What is your website? I would def like to have a Entertainment lawyer I can actually trust in the future.
So we "HAVE TO" ? How hard is it exactly to apply for your own isrc code and get it to stores?
Thank you for being an advocate for the people who are trying to get into writing and producing music. We need a lot more advocates in numerous areas. Sine COVID, I have seen a huge jump in rich people taking advantage of little people just trying to pay their bills. These wealthy people are creating these corrupt contracts to put people under the bus and essentially smother them. The people we put in government are not protecting the people, even though this should be part of their job description.
I absolutely love both of you. Thank you both for helping us fight back.
So, the "product / feature" they are selling is AI protection, the cost for me to use this product is to hand over full rights to my music. There is no doubt they would use my music to train their AI - that's their main aim. The duration of the contact is the full copyright life because (as far as I know) you can't untrain AI.
*Top Music Attorney* thank you for this video.
Their public FAQ states: How can I opt into TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program?
TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program is currently invite-only. If you didn't receive an email from us with the subject line "Protect Your Content by Opting-in to TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program", you haven't been invited at this time.
We'll regularly send new invites for TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program program to eligible artists. Please keep an eye out for future communications from us for your opportunity to opt in.
If you were invited and chose to opt in, you will receive an email confirmation from us when we receive your opt-in.
What are the requirements?
Please note: Meeting these eligibility requirements does not guarantee that you will be invited to TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program, but you must meet them to be considered for an invitation.
Currently, the only requirement is that your preferred language is English. We will be including other languages later, so stay tuned!
What are the benefits of opting into TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program?
Exclusive Access: This invite-only program offers artists a chance to be part of pioneering AI and ML projects in the music industry.
Collaboration: Opens doors for collaboration with industry leaders, other artists, and future partners, fostering a community of innovation and learning.
Contribution: Enables artists to contribute their unique perspectives and creativity, shaping the future of music through AI and ML.
Ongoing Expansion: We’ll continue adding artists and new opportunities to the program to keep it fresh and interesting!
Does opting in guarantee I'll have access to these AI and ML opportunities?
No, there is no guarantee that you'll have access to any specific opportunities within the program for any or all of your catalog. By opting in, you're telling us you are interested, and we will present you with opportunities that make sense for you as they become available.
What can I expect once I opt-in to TuneCore's AI & Data Protection Program?
Once you've opted in, you'll hear from us when we have an opportunity for you! You won't need to take any action on your own, we’ll reach out to you.
How can I see any AI & Data Protection Program projects I'm active in?
You'll receive an email from us to tell you once you've been included in a project, as well as how your work is being used in that project. You can't see this information on your TuneCore Dashboard yet, but we’re hoping to have that available to you in the near future.
How will I be compensated for my participation in these opportunities?
Compensation will vary depending on the opportunity. Compensation information will be included when we send you details about an opportunity.
Yes! I was waiting for this video since I got that AI Tunecore offer!
Great video. Thank you for taking the time to do work like this.
This and similar companies need a class action lawsuit against their sneaky arrogant behaviour. What do you mean by click on this and you are getting exactly the shit you wanted to get protected from? WTF? That very process is enough reason for TuneCore (or the others) to pay Trillions of dollars of compensation to the musicians and producers! The CEO should be in Jail for the rest of his life, no bail, no parole, he signed away his right to walk outside.
thing I noticed as a musician is my music is getting tonnes of low length plays added to instagram posts but I dont get paid for it. is this how thry work now?
WOW and holy shit! Thanks so much.
So if you happen to have a hit song, they already own it! So they get all the money! Original artists become slaves and pawns. Ah, the benefits of slavery?
So let me get this straight, music industry can't get your rights unless you sign them over. So government creates copyright streaming laws that prevent you from streaming your music unless you hold the rights and go through a distributor. The distributor pays you as the rights holder a share of your revenue. So music industry buys up all distributors, makes up these contracts, that means you sign away your rights, thus they get the rights, they own the distributor and have deals with and own the streaming platforms. Yet no one is screaming monopoly? I'm sure this sounds like a class action lawsuit just waiting for some hungry lawyers willing to take on the music industry for a big payday. I wonder how deep this rabbit hole goes and how many artists are affected by these shady backdoor deals.
With 100,000 uploads of music per day to streaming services, some version of a D2C intermediary platform should be on fire by now.
LANDR has something similar, but it’s a separate thing you have to opt in for that’s not tied to your entire catalog or your full subscription. At least, that’s how they are fronting it.
I did not opt in, because I was exactly thinking like you when I read the term ... it is close to buglary
The one with landr just covers ai this almost seems like they could sell your songs without the a.i. to different license partners.
I'm not sure how this popped up for me, but I found it fascinating. I guess we are all aware of theft in the music business which has been going on as long as music has existed. It seems that it has become absurdly complex for a guy who just wants to write songs and play his guitar, hoping that someone will like what he has created. And perhaps make a few bucks doing it. I just retired from an entirely different performing art less than two years ago. ALL creation in that field is derivative and policing outright theft just isn't worth the trouble. After watching this, I feel fortunate that there aren't as many of us as there are of them (music creators). Thank you for a highly informative video!
Question: What aggregates do you if any recommend? Pickings are slim and all I hear is what each does wrong and what to avoid. What are the lesser evils to get music out to our people? Thank you for your work
All too often these companies update their terms of service and send you the notice later. They never include the details and make you look up the entire contract again.
Sadly it's never one document but rather a document full of links which are also full of links to bury their mischef.
Thanks for exposing this 👍
Great video. Again you draw our attention to the way big tech is working out ways to own and control our intellectual property. It feels that the spaces we have to promote and release our music are actually becoming smaller and smaller if we want any control over that music. In many ways this is no different from signing your in perpetuity publishing and recording deals that caught so many artists from the 1950’s onwards. And are still prevalent today. Just this time they want to suck up even your kids little song they made for grandma and put out on Spotify. More dangerous though is that they could claim exclusive rights to your music potentially destroying your ability to sell your own music for sync or even to let other artists cover it. Please keep up the good work.x
Thanks for the support.
Gems 💎, more podcasts like this 💯
appreciate both you and Benn Jordan a lot
Tunecore knows what they are doing. They know that A) people don't read Terms of Service documents, and B) That people will rush to accept something presented to them as protecting them from AI. It is deceptive, deliberate, and malicious. There is no ignorance or incompetence behind it.
Just wanted to thank you and let you know you are a real one. You don’t have to get on here and let us know what these bad contracts really mean, but you do. Know that its appreciated.
Well, technically they are protecting against unauthorized use of your music. By legally allowing anyone to use it - there you go no more unauthorized use. Like the other day the company, that said no more work stressed colleagues, because we don't want a stressful company environment. So we fired those colleagues.
16:20 my advice: Use a distro company, and then go somewhere ELSE to pay a subscription to a service to protect your IP. Thinking that the distro company is where you should get your legal protection from is sorta like buying gas station sushi. Sushi isn’t what they do at a gas station. It’s actually worse. It’s like asking Amway for a good lawyer to protect you against being targeted by financial scammers, and then for Amway being like “Oh, hire US! We have JUST THE THING!” Told a homie who was being scouted by universal, I said “so you have a lawyer?” She said “Oh, the label gave me one.”
Aaaaand you’ve never heard her sing a note. I bet she wrote a ton of “work-for-hire” songs that charted tho.
If the lawyer you were introduced to was introduced by the label that ain't your lawyer it's theirs. 🤦
Basically, the opt-in is a binding legal contract that gives them the right to do whatever to your music absolutely whenever and however they please, as well as the right to sublicense other entities to do the same. They could at least provide some free baby-oil after artists opt-in.
well why cant we fix a wrong and create our own OSP Distributor and fix this bull****
We saw the optin button on the email, total outrageous, sad when the tech company is arrogant and thinking that we a stupid! pathetic exploitation of our music bye bye tunecore 🤯🤬
Crazy times..
Oh gosh 😱😱😱
Good Weekend !!!
They may even orchestrate deals with other distributors to use your music ,avoiding copy right infringement, just to build their AI🤦♂
whats up with Ben wearing that goofy whatsapp shirt lol, thank you for the informative video!
love Ben haha
Pretty sure it's either a soccer or rugby jersey.
Thank you for sharing 🙏🏻
Is there a way to create a class action suit to stop contracts like these?
Suggestion: As a music industry Lawyer, I thought that you would be interested in some of the ideas in a podcast I just watched if you haven't already seen it. It's an episode of The Factually podcast with Adam Conover and the episode is called "Chokepoint capitalism with Cory Doctorow" they very briefly specifically mention the music industry, but a lot of the things they cover can also be applied to the music industry as well.
high drama intro is a good look for these. Keep that.
Totally subbed. Thank you 🍸
Great explanation, what pitfalls do the others have?
Thank you so much for your work!!
Simple question: is there ANY "honest distributor" for unsigned, independent musicians to use ???
6:33 did the law change since I took the ca bar??!? Doesn’t that void the clause?
As a musician. One should always beware of someone/thing that says they can take care of the business side of music
It's probably going to take advantage of you
Be vigilant
My price is ONE BILLION DOLLARS, us.
Not even surprised TuneCore would do this. TC has been a terrible place where music gets stolen all the time and put up there, CryptTheRapper bought a beat but someone took that beat and uploaded his rap over it to tune core and claimed the whole beat.
Absolutely insane!! Not surprising though…
WHAT? Is there ANY distributor I can trust any longer, then? I'm not licensing away my IP for businesses to mass-produce cheap knockoffs. Music is an bonding activity that is meant to be shared and practiced between people. Replacing the human enjoyment with a machine is ridiculous. I have to search deep in my mind to find anything resembling this kind of evil. Because that's exactly what it is. This is evil.
What an awesome youtube channel. Huge respect!
When did this opt-in ai thing w Tunecore start? And when did the emails start?
As soon as the model is trained on your music, the model is so large that there is NO way to know if and to what degree your input was used in any subsequent output. So I’m not sure how they make any kind of payment to an individual, and I’m assuming that IF you get a payout, it would have to be divided among ALL who opt in…so Spotify payments will look huge compared to these.
Sounds like they are making a music making AI under the original guise of an anti-pirating AI. Once they get enough people to opt in, they "fail", "sell the company" and they sell it to a "different company" using it for the exact purpose it was meant to be against but, everyone just grandfathered their rights to an AI. (not sure if that was a correct use of "grandfathered" there or not.)
We'll only protect you from the AI we don't profit from. - Tunecore
Can you submit to Spotify, Apple, etc without going through a distributor? If not, how do you become a distributor in the first place?
This is a very important channel. 👍
Thanks for sharing your insights and knowledge and the heads ups!
There we go... another reason why i have no way to get my music out, there is no trust left.
Unlike many, I always read what I'm signing and I remember reading the Terms relating to this. What I can't remember is whether or not I opted in! I’m now hoping I didn't! Thanks for highlighting this issue. It wears me out to think that you just can't trust anyone these days.
I've just checked my TuneCore; it's still asking me if I want to opt in so I presume I didn't after all! Phew!
What about LandR ? Can you please go over their TOS ? or you did it already?
Your music being used by AI is of an infinitesimal factor compared to what beat makers steal from real instrument musicians. The last 30 years of music made this possible.
So which distributer is recommended
@@heythere6983 after everything i’m awake that’s going on right now. I’d say amuse
7:49 lack of consideration! VOIDED K!
Thanks so much for this headsUp.
I think that it us really strange how they're obliged, by law, to notify you (their client) of an update on the Terms of Service, aka _ the Contract.
Doesn't US federal Law demand they do that ?
On that ambiguous note they make, that you comment about a couple of times _ they are "entitled to 50% , except for fees" and sth else.. , I am wondering if they are not referring to the fees they themselves would charge the client, by doing their job _ of defending said client, if AI would use the client's music. I'm wondering if they would keep the 50% plus the court & legal fees.
Could that be it ?
( thanks again)
This screams incompetence more than anything else. They don't realize what they are asking for.
Thank you. This was very helpful.
It would be useful if the industry could get together and agree a fee per second for use of music for AI learning, plus a % commission based on future earnings based on the music used as the foundation for the AI generated music. Currently, if you want to use someone's music in your project, e.g. in a film, you have to pay royalties based on distribution, audience viewing etc., WHETHER YOU ACTUALLY MAKE MONEY OR NOT! This has to be applied to AI LLMs but also with a revenue split on future royalties - the AI developers may say that they can't tell who's music "influenced" which AI piece of music, but this could easily be built in to the systems, OR, everyone who's music you have used get a cut of the pool of revenue going forward, but good luck trying to go down a flat shared revenue model with the Majors!
This absolutely should be illegal!
Hopefully, Subvert will get this right and take off. Time will tell.
Would love to get your take on Boombox now that they offer distribution.
I bet they want eternal rights because once they use your music to train their AI, it would be very expensive to go back and re-train the AI without your music. It's not like deleting a record from a database, unfortunately.
This is horrific
I have a couple of thoughts on this.
1. Their approach to ai is wrong. Everyone new who tries to do something like this without innovating from here on out is going to fail, unless what they're trying to do is package a dataset.
2. Tunecore just sounds shady in general, and I wouldn't deal with them.
3. We need to stop thinking about ai this way, in terms of raw diffusion processes, and start thinking seriously about notation, and making new kinds of music possible. Things that can't be done without heavy computation. This is where the future is.
4. Tools aimed at amateurs aren't where the innovation is going to happen. I've tried talking them all. Nobody's listening.
5. Cloud processing is a privacy concern with ai no matter who you are. And it shouldn't be necessary.
6. The future's going to come from open source. It's going to come soon, and it's going to change everything.
I'm going to put some time in on something this weekend, see if I get anywhere.
Singsong's aren't difficult to build. But one that's actually useful to musicians that doesn't violate anyone's rights or privacy?
I have a couple of ideas on how to do that.
But either way, I think it's time t start thinking about ai, who needs it, and what it's good for in a completely different way.
So if I read between the lines; they are asking for the rights to own your stuff. They are going to use those rights to use your music in order to create technology they stand to gain from. This is all under the pretext that they may find your music (now theirs) being used elsewhere and may sue in your stead.
Out of all of this all you get is the leftovers from them possibly suing somebody. I'm assuming they're only going to go after things that they will actually make money on. This is a whole scam. It is a scam from top to bottom. You stand to gain nothing from it but lose everything if your music is your life
Shady and shameful practices soo widespread these days
could you make the disclaimer smaller for us?
Interesting. Are they getting the rights so that they can decide what the deal is with the sampling party, then go ahead with that without getting back to the artist. "Let tunecore sort this out and take 50%".
50/50 is a red flag, still a grand sign of disrespect. If they were to really offer you something that respected your creative rights and content, it would lean towards the artist side in maybe 70/30 and the end result of any decision making would fall on you consenting. Regarding useage, or anything related. Protection would be just that and if it resulted in them making some money we would be in business to benefit one another, most of the see contracts treat musicians or creators like we’re nothing without them and lucky to be offered such opportunities. We should be valued and respected for what we bring to people’s lives versus a company’s wallet.
Idle speculation: It seems like the kind of thing that would be done by a company whose real clients are the software companies that forgot to get permission to use music they found on the internet to train their AI models, and now they're sweating bullets. Still speculating: And a skeezy distribution platform might seize this opportunity to generate income by partnering with the AI companies who would pay them for coming up with a way of retroactively indemnifying the AI companies against legal action. That would be incredibly skeezy if it were the case. I'm not a lawyer, but it sounds like if there's a class-action lawsuit in the works, then anybody who opted in to this might be unable to collect a settlement.
Are there any distributors that CAN'T change their terms of service without notifying you? Or could this happen with any of them?
Leave streaming to AI.
Streaming will finally be as worthless as it generates revenue for creators.
Happy days! Right?
Isnt it a clear chucpe? They are selling you an AI protection and removing your IP via an infinitly licensed unknown AI tool at the same time! Genius! 🙂
Can you do a deep dive into Landr?