I was surprised to receive a Blogger DMCA takedown notification this afternoon, telling me they had deleted one of my Decemberists' posts. For your reference, I've copied and pasted the contents of my 'offending' post below:
The Decemberists will be releasing a new LP named The Hazards of Love on March 24, and they have kindly offered a track called "The Rake's Song" for download via their official site (or you can get it below). Note that the word 'rake' here does not refer to the ubiquitous agricultural tool, but rather 'an immoral or dissolute person'. The song's titular character is a young widowed father who kills his three children using various means because he wants to be a carefree single again. It's mad stuff, but Colin Meloy & Co. sure know how to make it work.
Download:
The Decemberists - The Rake's Song
Earlier, I received a takedown notification for one of my Yeah Yeah Yeahs' posts (that makes it two). In hindsight, I shouldn't have posted that new YYYs song. I thought it was alright to do so because all the bigger, more established blogs were doing it. Heck, even Kanye West was doing it.
But this? The Decemberists one? I don't understand. This song was previously available as a free song via their official website. I just uploaded it to an MP3 hosting site to facilitate my blog readers. It wasn't explicitly stated that I couldn't share the free track. Now that the album has been released (and the free MP3 supposedly removed), they've deleted my post. Huh? Then why do I see so many tracks floating around on blog aggregators like The Hype Machine? In fact, if you look hard enough, you can piece together the entire album.
Most people who maintain music blogs do so because they have a passion for the music they are sharing. If you tell them nicely to remove content that may be copyrighted, they will usually oblige. However, I've read of a few posts being removed even though the artists gave them permission to post their material. Thankfully I haven't had that yet.
How then does Google and the RIAA decide what to delete? Do they work hand-in-hand with record labels and the artists that they represent?
I agree that the way the authorities are enforcing this is too haphazard. It's too heavy-handed, and the rules and regulations are hazy. It is a grey area waiting to be addressed. In the meantime, it's no wonder many music bloggers are switching to platforms like WordPress instead.
Read:
- Los Angeles Music: Google's New Killer App? Why Are Music Bloggers' Posts Disappearing, and Who Is Deleting Them?
- Modern Acoustic: Are music blogs under fire?
No comments:
Post a Comment