Oh dear oh dear, what a musical mess I made
I totally stuck a spanner in the digital works
How to confuse 4 parties at the same time when nothing was wrong in the first place
(sounds just like something I'd do......,oh wait, I just did)
This may be of use to know for anyone who releases music through any form of digital media management / royalty collection agency:
(so that you don't make a mess of it like I just did!)
Today, I noticed on my 'folk/instrumental' you tube page :
Ant Nottingham You Tube Page
that 'Hereward the wake' had been marked as a copyright infringement and own by someone else.
Obviously I was a bit annoyed at this as I wrote , played and filmed everything myself so I filed a dispute.
A bit later I logged into my pop / electronic you tube page :
Dark Villager - You Tube Page
and to my horror noticed that over 20 of my original videos there were also under dispute of ownership / copyright.
I was not pleased! I was livid! I was distraught ! ( ok exageration, I was mildly annoyed )
Apart from 'pride' and honesty of having made 100% of all the disputed videos myself, It also meant that any ( very little ) revenue generated from video plays (literally a few pence a month , but still it's mine! ) would not go to me but to you tube or to the claimant.
So I got to work filing 20 more claims to get ownership of my own work back!
I then wrote to the two companies that were making claim on them (cdbaby and rumblefish) and asked them to give me my videos back!
With Cdbaby I could understand how there could be a link as I release through them, but rumblefish meant little to me so was confused by that one....
Basically I assumed someone had detected the track / video with the same name /title as ones owned by me and released through them but had not realised I was one and the same person as the one uploading on the YouTube channel ( or the computer system did not realise this) , especially as I have 2 YouTube pages.
CDBaby wrote fairly swiftly back in their usual apologetic and humerous and helpful style.... and I went DOH!!!!!! PLONKER!!!! and bashed my head on the mouse several times.
What had happened was this:
Basically, at some point, I had chosen to opt in (or not opt out of) having my youtube revenue (if any) collected through cdbaby, via rumblefish. They mark them as their ownership, and collect the revenue (if any) and pass it back to me.
So I now have 20+ youtube videos marked for contesting ownership when there was nothing wrong! and of course youtube are impossible to contact and you can't withdraw a contension of rights claim!!
ak well, serves me right for not investigation further 1st and jumping to false conclusions.
I guess one of the following will happen:
a) nothing
b) youtube will follow up all my claims (unlikely) only to find out that there is nothing to contest and be very confused.
c) youtube will actually read my 'legal dept' email and cancel the claims (very unlikely!)
d) you tube will be annoyed at 20+ claims and close my account just for hasstling them and wasting their time (possible!)
e) you tube will give the rights back to me
f) you tube will write a nice reply and immediately sort it out (impossible)
g) rumblefish will get confused and send the police after me (joke, i hope)
h) I will get a massive surge in views as agents from 101 departments chase after the copyright thief
i) I get hit on the head by a piece of mouldy cheese
j) all my videos go viral and I get rich overnight and retire (yeah, sure space boy)
there, all sorted (maybe)
If you tube now confuse things further, I'll post a continuation of the story here... hopefully it will all be fine!
Ant
continuation!...
a reply from You tube (in itself a miracle)
however they did not read my problem correctly and gave me how to proceed in solving a different problem to the one I asked about!
I guess that's nearest to situation b) !
I have replied and explained again....
tbc.....
