Chances are, if you're a producer—bedroom or professional—you've incurred the ire of SoundCloud's overzealous takedown measures. Only yesterday DJ Barely Legal had her account suspended over copyright claims and, as we all know, she's by no means the first and definitely won't be the last. The vast majority, if not all, claims stem from SoundCloud detecting what it deems copyrighted material. This may come in the form of a remix, bootleg, mashup or even a DJ mix. Often these claims are erroneous and completely legitimate material is removed without warning. And let's not forget the three-strikes-and-you're-out rule. The onus is always on the remixer to prove that they have the rights to the material, but only once the offending material has been removed.
Still, this could all be about to change. In a surprise announcement yesterday, Apple Music proclaimed that in the very near future artists would be able to upload their own material—including remixes, bootlegs, mixes and anything else sitting within the grey area of copyright laws—to the service without any fear or takedowns or scary legal letters. The move comes after a landmark agreement between Apple Music and Dubset Media Holdings, who have links with over 14,000 publishers and record labels.
Using a technology called Mixbank, Apple Music can now use algorithms similar to the ones used by YouTube and SoundCloud's copyright detection service Zefr to track down the relevant rightsholders and compensate them. They also offer rightsholders the ability to restrict the number of times their material can be used in one mix. This removes any threat to the mixer or bootlegger and actually puts money in the pockets of the rightsholder instead of simply punishing the former and appeasing the latter.
There's no concrete launch date for this just yet, but you can be assure that when it does SoundCloud will be in serious trouble.
[via The Verge]
