Universal Music Group (UMG), ABKCO and Concord Music Group filed a lawsuit against Believe and its publishing company TuneCore, accusing them of “continued mass infringement” of their recordings, including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande Ariana Grande, Rihanna, ABBA, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, DJ Snake, Aqua and more. The companies are seeking “at least $500 million” in damages.
In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court on Monday night (November 4), Andrew Bart and Gianni Servodidio Jenner & Block, UMG, ABKCO and Concord Music Group accuse Believe of being “riddled with fraudulent ‘artists’ and bootleg labels” and distributing copies of those fraudulent records to various streaming services and social media sites.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys claim that “Believe made little effort to conceal its illegal conduct” and that the allegedly infringing recordings “often are minor variations of… the names of famous recording artists and the titles of their most successful works.” The complaint alleges that the alleged fraudsters attempted to sell the products by using misspellings of popular artists’ names, including “Kendrik Laamar,” “Ariana Grande,” “Jadine Bieber” and “Lady Gaga.”
“Believe is fully aware that in pursuit of rapid growth, its business model is driven by rampant piracy,” the lawsuit says, adding that the company “turns a blind eye” to infringing content on and off social media. Serve.
Additionally, attorneys for UMG and other plaintiffs said that “Believe exploited the content management claims system on YouTube” to “divert” and “delay… the payment of royalties attributed to the record labels.” They added that this “suggests” that after YouTube resolves the conflict over the legal ownership of the recordings, “it is believed that it will continue to[s] Distribute the exact same track to other digital music service providers and charge those providers royalties for the use of the track.
This isn’t the first time bad actors have been accused of exploiting YouTube’s content management system to claim royalties that don’t belong to them. In 2022, two Phoenix, Arizona, men pleaded guilty to soliciting $23 million worth of YouTube royalties from unsuspecting Latin musicians including Julio Iglesias, Anuel AA, and Daddy Yankee, even though they had no actual connection to the artists. To facilitate claiming these royalties, the pair, operating under the name MediaMuv, used AdRev, a rights management company owned by Downtown.
“Believe is a company predicated on industrial-scale copyright infringement,” a UMG spokesperson said in a statement. “Their illegal conduct is not limited to defrauding artists on major labels, but also artists on independent labels – including Believe.” Artists on independent labels who are themselves part of the trade body. No wonder Believe have been outspoken in their opposition to the principles of streaming reform that many major independent labels have been advocating. Why? Because such reform would undermine and expose them by distributing something they have no rights to. music and illegally collect royalties to build scale and market power for the benefit of themselves and their co-conspirators.
The complaint specifically alleges Believe of direct copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, indirect copyright infringement, direct infringement of pre-1972 sound recordings, contributory infringement of pre-1972 sound recordings and indirect infringement of pre-1972 sound recordings.
Representatives for Believe and TuneCore did not immediately respond. advertising billboardRequest for comment.
It’s been a busy year for TuneCore’s parent company, Believe. On March 1, the French music giant, which is listed on Euronext Paris, announced that its board of directors had approved its privatization and that there were “interested parties” seeking to acquire it. First, however, bidders ask for due diligence information and financial data before making a formal bid. Later that month, the names of the suitors were revealed when Warner Music Group (WMG) announced a formal notice disclosing its interest in acquiring Believe. Groove attack.
However, in early April, WMG canceled plans to submit a formal offer. The label did not elaborate on its decision, saying only that it was made “after careful consideration.” On April 19, Believe’s board of directors announced its support for a proposal by TCV, EQT Denis Radgallery. Three independent members of the board of directors voted unanimously in favor of the view that the acquisition was in the interests of minority shareholders.
Fraud and copyright infringement have been hot topics in the music industry as it becomes increasingly democratized, giving anyone the opportunity to publish music within hours (and sometimes minutes) at the click of a button. In response, TuneCore joined CD Baby, Distrokid and other competitors to form the Music Fights Fraud alliance, which aims to stop bad actors jumping from service to service to release songs to which they don’t own the rights. A series of initiatives, including Credits Due, have since been launched to try to address metadata issues in the music industry, which can leave artists vulnerable to royalty theft and fraud, particularly on sites like YouTube.
Still, despite these efforts, TuneCore and other DIY distributors have been accused of allowing bad actors to use their sites to upload infringing or fraudulent content. In August 2020, Round Hill Music’s publishing arm sued TuneCore for “intentional and unauthorized use” of 219 of its recordings. And in 2022, advertising billboard According to reports, some music executives believe Create Music Group is gaming the system on YouTube to extract royalties, with one label source calling the company’s practices “extremely egregious.”
Just last month, TikTok sounded the alarm about fraudulent content when it pulled out of licensing talks with Merlin, a consortium of independent labels and publishers, allegedly to prevent users from uploading works on the platform to which they did not own the rights. . TikTok said it would instead enter into separate licensing deals with record labels and distributors it deems safe.
