Universal Music Takes Down Maroon 5's Own Video With A Copyright Claim

from the nice-work,-geniuses dept

This seems to happen every few months or so, but once again, a record label is causing a big name musical act to have its own video blocked from showing up on YouTube. As you may have heard, Maroon 5 recently released a new single, entitled "This Summer's Gonna Hurt Like A Motherfucker" -- and with it, a video that has been getting lots of attention. So, you might want to go check it out on YouTube, but if you do that right now, you'll be presented with this (ht: @RomanOnARiver): Ooops. Yes, that's Maroon 5's official YouTube channel and the official video for their new single which has been getting lots of press attention and already had nearly 1.5 million views. But now it's getting none, because the band's own label has yanked the video via a copyright claim (most likely via a braindead use of YouTube's Content ID system). The band is signed to Interscope, which is a subsidiary of Universal Music. Gotta wonder how that's working out for them, if their own label is yanking down their own official video just as it's getting lots of attention. Isn't copyright great?

Filed Under: content id, copyright, maroon 5, promotions, takedowns
Companies: interscope, universal music, youtube

When The Kids Of Major Label Execs Get Accused Of Infringement...

from the oh-look-at-that dept

You may know the name Jimmy Iovine. He's the head of Interscope Records, one of Universal Music's most important subsidiaries (if not the most important one). Not surprisingly, Iovine has a bit of a history of being something of a copyright maximalist. A few years back, he specifically called out the evils of children infringing:

"Rip it, burn it--the last few years parents and children have been given a pass when they knew in their hearts that [what they were doing] was wrong," Iovine said.

Indeed, he seems to suggest that parents share some of the blame for their kids infringing:

"(Piracy) is hurting kids because kids are learning a disrespect for the basic relationship between creativity and ownership. It's hurting parents because they are in on the sham."

So, one would assume that Jimmy Iovine's kids are squeaky clean, right? Especially, say, if they were professional DJs whose websites indicate they're a part of the Interscope/Universal Music family, right? Yes, that's the website of DJ Eye -- also known as Jamie Iovine, son of Jimmy Iovine. Jamie actually has a really good reputation as a DJ but, like many DJs, he releases mixtapes/remixes/etc. And, recently, it appears, Jamie's Soundcloud account was shut down due to copyright infringement: If you can't see that, it says:

My soundcloud is temp disabled due to some copyright bullshit. Getting it cleared up and should be re activated soon

His account is now back but a recent remix has gone missing. It was a remix that included Will.I.Am (Interscope Artist) along with Jennifer Lopez and Mick Jagger (not on Interscope).

None of this is to suggest that Jamie did anything wrong here. In fact, it looks like he did something completely natural and certainly very common: remixed some music in a cool way. But the way copyright law often works, you can now get in lots of trouble and owe lots and lots of money for doing something completely natural. Perhaps his father will realize that these issues aren't always so black and white, and even if your children are brought up in a house where they're taught repeatedly just how totally awesome copyright law is, it doesn't mean they won't, someday, discover how copyright law limits them, and get accused of copyright infringement.

Filed Under: jennifer lopez, jimmy iovine, mick jagger, remix, will.i.am
Companies: interscope, universal music

Universal Music Takes Down 50 Cent's Official YouTube Video

from the how's-that-work-now? dept

Remember how the music labels like to say that everything they do is for the sake of the artists on their label? Yeah. Then remember how Universal Music had 50 Cent's own personal website declared a pirate site? It seems that UMG quite frequently works against the interests of its artists -- both big and small. It's no secret that 50 Cent and his label (UMG-owned Interscope) are in a state of constant disagreement. But what happens when 50 Cent decides, on Christmas Day, to release his latest "official" video? Universal Music takes it down. 50 Cent's own YouTube account put up the "official video" for the song "They Burn Me," but within hours, if you went to that page, you saw the following: We've been hearing lots of similar stories lately of UMG being pretty quick on the trigger to take down videos, even ones that its own artists have been releasing. The label got a lot of attention over the bogus takedown of the MegaUpload video, but it seems like UMG pretty much feels free to take down videos all the time, even those that the artists they're claiming to "protect" want up.

Filed Under: 50 cent, takedown, video
Companies: interscope, universal music, youtube

Cocaine Ring Used Universal Music's Interscope Label To Ship Drugs & Cash

from the drugs-and-music dept

It's no secret that there was a close connection between major record labels and drugs in the past -- but people keep insisting that's all ancient history these days. So it's interesting to find out, via a federal prosecution of a cocaine ring, the news that the effort apparently hid the shipping of cash and cocaine around the country by using concert "road cases" and shipping them to and from Interscope Records' offices. Interscope, of course, is a Universal Music sub-label, which is home to the likes of Eminem and Lady Gaga.

Department of Justice prosecutors this week provided defense lawyers with shipping records detailing “pickups and deliveries” made at Interscope’s Los Angeles office by a cargo firm that was used to transport the music cases, which were alternately stuffed with kilos of cocaine and upwards of $1 million in cash.

Perhaps, rather than worrying so much about the impact of "piracy," the folks at Universal Music should be paying attention to the drug dealing happening via its own offices. Just saying.

Filed Under: drugs, record labels
Companies: interscope, universal music

Did Universal Music Declare 50 Cent's Own Website Is A Pirate Site?

from the fact-checking dept

You may have heard last week that hip hop star 50 Cent got into a public war of words with his record label, Interscope (a division of Universal Music Group), concerning his upcoming album. 50 Cent claimed that differences would mean that the album was delayed. At the end of the week, it sounded like he had patched things up a bit and worked out the major differences, but he might want to take another look at what his label is doing.

As you may know, yesterday, we wrote about Universal Music's involvement in putting together a list of "pirate" websites that ad giant GroupM would place on a big blacklist of sites. GroupM would use the blacklist to bar its ads from appearing on any listed site. We noticed many oddities on the list, including a bunch of websites that are considered the top of the top in the hip hop world when it comes to promoting new works. However, some in our comments noted an even odder site on the list: 50 Cent's own website: ThisIs50.com.

Now, there may be some confusion, because it appears that there are two different "official" 50 sites. However, one of them, 50Cent.com is owned and run by Universal Music. ThisIs50.com is 50's own site and is the one linked from his own Facebook page (which, in turn, is linked from his verified Twitter account). There seems to be little doubt that ThisIs50 is 50's own website. In fact, if you look at the Universal-run 50Cent.com, it very prominently links to ThisIs50: Furthermore, Universal Music and Interscope regularly linked to ThisIs50.com. Seems pretty odd to then put it on their list of "pirate" sites. Of course, in a bit of odd recursiveness, ThisIs50 now has a discussion going about the fact that it's on the list. Perhaps this is some sort of "punishment" for 50 Cent's earlier claims that "piracy" is just "marketing" and that he'll make up the money elsewhere?

But, honestly, since supporters of PROTECT IP and other such legislation keep claiming that it's so easy to figure out what is and what is not a "rogue site," can someone explain how Universal recording artist 50 Cent's own site gets on the list, which was apparently put together in part by Universal Music? I have a question in to folks at Universal Music, but once again, I doubt I'll hear back.

Filed Under: 50 cent, piracy, rogue site
Companies: groupm, interscope, universal music, wpp

Interscope And Best Buy Team Up To Give You A Free Twitter Application For Free (With Purchase)

from the well,-hot-damn dept

Dear major record labels: when we suggested you learn how to embrace "free" in your marketing and promotions, this isn't quite what we meant. Consumerist points out that Interscope (part of Universal Music) has put together a promotion with Best Buy, whereby if you buy a CD from certain Interscope artists, you get a free copy of the software Tweetdeck. Well, that's nice... other than the fact that Tweetdeck is already free. Great deal! Now, to be fair, the copy of Tweetdeck you get is a special "customized" version that automatically has you following 16 Interscope artists (even if you only bought a CD from one of them). Of course, you could also just follow any of those artists yourself (again, for free), so it's not quite clear what the promotion is. But, they sure seem to suggest it's a big deal in the Best Buy newspaper ad: Now, I guess, to some extent, we should note that it's a good thing that a major record label is admitting publicly that "free" can act as a good promotion -- so kudos to Interscope for taking that big step. It's also nice to see Interscope recognize that an infinite good (software) can potentially help sell more scarce goods (CDs). But, on the whole, it definitely seems like this promotion could have been handled a lot better. Pumping up the "free" aspect of something that's already free just doesn't seem that compelling.

Filed Under: free, music, tweetdeck
Companies: best buy, interscope, tweetdeck