Tunecore change puts users into infringement on their own material

[blue2blue]

A little-publicized change in Tunecore's licensing arrangements -- reportedly moving artists from a non-exclusive arrangement to an exclusive one -- without their assent or approval -- and according to some, with NO notice -- has created a situation where many TuneCore users have had their original content locked for 'copyright infringement' -- of their OWN works -- because Tunecore has partnered with an aggressive copyright trolling company. The shutdowns are automated and the only way Tunecore users can protect their content on YouTube or other sites is by putting their 'channels' on those accounts on a 'whitelist' that will identify the content as authorized. Tunecore claims they notified their users. Users claim otherwise.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130710-INDMUSIC-Responds-to-False-ContentID-Claims-with-YouTube-TuneCore

 

Here's more from a different artist/Tunecore customer:

I struggled with whether or not I should send this letter, as I

[LCK]

I have no idea what all this means.

I have a royalty deal with Harry Fox. Does that mean anything here?

[blue2blue]

[speaking strictly as a private individual below]

This mostly only effects those who use TuneCore as a syndication aggregator (for placing their music in iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, MOG/Beats, etc).

 

EDIT: it could also affect those who have created videos that are on YT or other such sites that used music with permission of an an artist who is a TuneCore customer -- but who has not already 'whitelisted' the licensee's video. In such a case, TuneCore's 'licensing-enforcement' partner, INDMUSIC, would apparently block your 'infringing' video, reportedly requiring the artist to whitelist the use and then, apparently, a considerable amount of paperwork getting the blockage lifted and reportedly  many months of hassle.

Many TC artists claim they were never informed of the changes -- but TC reportedly says they were informed and further reportedly reserves the right to change their terms of service at any time simply by changing the TOS page on their site.

This seems precisely the sort of high-handed, customer-last approach that caused me to essentially discard the album release credit I some time ago prepaid at TC. When I signed up, the yearly maintenance fees were neglible. But now they're considerably more than the price of putting the album up in the first place. When I complained, they basically said, tough luck, we can change those yearly fees any time we want to as much as we want. You can always stop paying them and stop receiving payment for the tunes you placed through TC. (Getting your tracks REMOVED from the stores, OTOH, is apparently not as easy as just not getting paid for the sales, apparently, however.) 

From what I've seen as a 'former' customer, they are really a piece of work. So to speak.