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I’ve received a copyright claim on YouTube, from UMPG Publishing, that claims that I’ve stolen some karaoke version of It’s time by Imagine Dragons. That is bullshit, I’ve made the remix myself!
The reason I uploaded the song to YouTube is that it was made for a remix competition that is no longer of immediate interest. Since I’ve got limited playing time on SoundCloud (where I first uploaded the track) I was moving it to YouTube to free some time for other songs on SoundCloud, while still making it possible for people to listen to the song. I would have understood perfectly if Imagine Dragons themselves or their record company didn’t want me to upload the song to YouTube, but this is someone who have made a karaoke version of the song, which has nothing to do with my remix except that it’s the same key and the same chords (I assume).
I disputed the copyright claim, but none of the choices for ground of disputing reflected what had actually happened. I will remove the song without further questioning if Imagine Dragons or their representatives asks me to, but I don’t want to be accused for having stolen some karaoke version!
Feel free to sue me, but it will be more expensive for you than it will be worth. I’m a broke person who makes music for the joy of it. But when things like this happens I find no joy at all in it and at the moment I’m seriously considering stopping making music altogether. I’m dealing with serious health issues and making music has been one of a few sources of joy to my life. I’m not, however, going to risk my health any further, so I might be giving my music making up now.
I apologize to Imagine Dragons and their representatives if I made a mistake by uploading the song, but I definitely didn’t steal any karaoke version of it. And I have not made any money whatsoever from any remix I’ve made!
The underlined text says Confirmed third party content. Really? The only third party content in the remix is the vocals, which were provided for the remix competition. But according to the copyright claim it’s not the vocals that is “third party content” but the instrumental background. I feel seriously offended by this accusation!
SoundCloud March 31, 2013. The “Here’s the Drop ™” arrow is underlined in yellow by me for clarity.
I love SoundCloud, it’s an simple and easy way to release your music. Nowadays I use it for all of my music (except for extended remixes, because of the limit of 120 minutes of music uploaded). But their new Here’s the drop ™ function is not working too well. In the case of the song on the picture above SoundCloud claims that the drop is at the end of the track. No one puts a drop at the end of a track, since the drop is what gets the track moving! Also the part of the song the arrow is pointing at is not even a drop, it is the main theme of the song repeating one last time without the drums and the bass (which is the opposite of a drop!).
Memories from home is definitely not the only of my songs where they got it wrong. Another song is claimed to start with a drop. It doesn’t. There are no drums in the beginning of that song.
Back to the drawing board, that function is only confusing people. To know where the drop of a particular song is you should listen to it!
(I have a feeling this was an April fools’ joke that was published a little too early. Good job, I swallowed it …)
I wish you all a happy Easter! Please check out one of my two submissions for the Damn You Mongolians remix competition. In the night was such a great song that it was really fun to remix. I’ll spend this weekend finishing up a novel I’ve been working on since 2009. I think it’s about time to finish it now.
This is my entry in the Imagine Dragons remix competition. I did it just for fun, since I definitely don’t feel attracted by the prize (tickets for their concert and a signed drumhead (!)). Just because you enter a remix competition doesn’t mean that you’re a fan. I enter the competitions cause I hope it makes people listen to my music. I’m really amazed over how many people who have listened to my Jamiroquai remix, thank you everyone!
One memory, perhaps the huge EDM smash hit of 2013?
It always feels a little sad when a group decides to split (or maybe not always, but mostly). I felt a little sad when the announcement was made that Swedish House Mafia (SHM) was going to split. They have been vital for the so called Swedish Electronic Dance Music (EDM) Explosion. Their success has been a source of hope for me as I’m also producing EDM. They have shown that if you make a song good enough then the sky is the limit. Despite my health issues I’ll never give up the hope that in a few years it’ll be me who’s flying all over the world in a private jet playing my songs to huge crowds.
EDM is big, especially the house music. When a Swedish newspaper listed some other big Swedish house music acts I was obviously not on the list. But in a year, when there probably will be another similar list, I hope to find my name on it. As I’ve said before I hope to be part of the Swedish EDM explosion.
Every time SHM or Avicii, or another EDM act, is mentioned in Swedish newspaper there are always lots of people complaining saying things like “That’s not real music! They’re no real musicians!” or “They’re just playing records!” Those people have obviously misunderstood everything. Making good EDM is not easy, but for those who succed there seems to be no ending to how far you could go. Of course people are jealous, I am jealous too! But I try to handle my jealousy by making something myself.
Farewell, SHM! And thanks for everything you did for the EDM and for the dreams and hopes of music producers and aspiring artists like me. You’ve made me feel like I also might make it. And of course thanks for some great music!
This is my remix from Too young to die by Jamiroquai, their smash hit from 1993, made for their remix competition. The original version is acid jazz, my version is obviously house. Check it out!
(If you’re not using Twitter or have any interests in it you don’t need to read this post.)
I’ve noticed a really curious practise that some users (mostly business accounts, but even private users). They might follow a whole lot of users, which probably makes most of us follow back. I always follow back unless I have good reason to believe the follower is a spambot that soon will get their account suspended. That makes them have like thousands of followers while they’re following about just as many.
Then, all of a sudden, they unfollow everyone except like 10 people (and not 10 as in 10 k!). That makes them have a lot of followers while they are not following more than like a handful people themselves. It might be okay with Twitter’s terms of use (I don’t know), but to me it seems just stupid. Since I (and many other people) always unfollow back there is no use in doing that silly practise. It’s like shooting yourself in your foot. Yet I’ve experienced it quite a few times.
I’m not sure what the reason is. It could be a trick to cheat Twitter’s limit on the amount of people you’re allowed to follow, but I see no reason for doing so since they would probably keep most of their followers anyway. I would never unfollow anyone who follows me unless that person really hurts me or is inactive for a longer period of time.
If you want people to read your tweets you must read other people’s tweets yourself, simple as that! And if I’m out to make business chances are great that I’m turning to someone who follows me. If someone has unfollowed me it signals to me that the company is not very careful of their potential clients and might make me chose another company.
A good advice for Twitter: If someone unfollow lots of people during a rather short period of time you should consider that a sign of a user trying to cheat or violate your regulations.
Now I’ve made my last submission for Avicii x You, an online petition to submit music that hopefully end up as parts of Avicii‘s upcoming crowdsourced hit. In total I’ve submitted 1 melody, 6 basslines, 7 beats/rhytms, 6 breaks and 9 effects. I have no expectation that any of my submissions will end up in the final track, but nevertheless it’s been an interesting and instructive month. The thought that I’m making music for someone else than myself has helped me “think outside the box” and I’ve come up with several new ideas that helped me develop my own music. I’ve been so inspired that there soon will be another house music release from me!
Thank you Avicii for making this petition, it’s been really fun! Sad thing I got no further than becoming a bedroom producer (which is like category 4 of 7), but hopefully this is just the beginning. Hopefully I’m about to get a breakthrough with my own music soon. I want to be part of the Swedish EDM explosion!
I’ve decided to take part in the Aviciixyou petition and hence uploaded a contribution for the lead melody of the upcoming song (which is what was asked for the first week of the competition, next week it will be about the bassline). That’s not going to be the main subject of this post, though. This is going to be about house music in general, and about a specific occasion when people really should keep their mouths shut.
Obviously both Avicii and Swedish House Mafia receive a lot of publicity in Swedish media. In Sweden’s biggest newspaper Aftonbladet you’re able to comment on some of the articles (usually some less controversial news, for the sake of convenience for the person legally responsible). Several times people have been commenting on news related to Avicii and Swedish House Mafia and you can be sure there’s always a whole bunch of comments like That’s not music, they’re just pushing a button. Anyone could do it! and similar. Are they right about that?
Well, after listening through like 20 random contributions for the aforementioned petition I think it’s safe to say that No, definitely not anyone can make house music. The contributions I listened to were either distorted as hell, poorly mixed or (quite amazingly) not lead melodies but like complete songs with basslines and drums and sometimes even vocals (that was not asked for in the description of the petition)! If anyone could make house music all the 20 contributions I listened to would have sounded great, but they definitely didn’t. I don’t claim my own contribution to be better, but it is definitely a melody and it is not distorted.
Having great self-confidence is good. Knowing when to shut up is better!
Johan Lindback in English 