It is a tough quarrel for some people these days. You want to make a living at music, yet people are giving it away for free without your permission. While some people welcome the bloggers posting their tracks away and giving them one of the best forms of organic promotion your band can receive. Then everyone has your music for free? Yes, well here is the qualm!
Bloggers are sharing your music because they are fans, giving to other fans. If you yell at them, or ask to take down your tracks, you now have an angry fan who will now be telling everyone in a public forum how lame you are to sympathetic ears. For example, two years ago in a not so well thought out move, Mark Debiak of Eyeball Records
sent out a childish hyperbolic letter to some bloggers - that did contain valid points - but in the end turned him into the Lars Ulrich of the indie world as the masses scoffed at the hyperbole of his mockery of the bloggers practices.
There are better ways to handle this if you object to a blogger posting
your music for free. Take it as a compliment and try to realize this is
the unfortunate future of promotion. Or you can go around the blogger.
Click on all of the links (the song is sometimes linked to numerous
file sharing sites) to the file sharing sites the blogger has posted
your music. Each of these sites takes copyright infringement very
seriously these days, seeing as if they do not respond to take down
letters they are able to be held liable in court. Follow the procedures
on each site to report copyright infringement and you will have the
files taken down promptly. The blogger will assume a fan, competing
blogger, that weird web sheriff guy, or a fan reported it. No matter
what, the blame will not be placed on you, avoiding a music fan revolt.
Pain
in the ass? Yes! A better way to handle this situation compared to
looking lame to the music fan masses? OH YEAH! On a side note, if you
want to know when blogs are posting your music make sure you
Google Alert your band.
tks for the effort you put in here I appreciate it!