Fire Alarm Companies

A few weeks ago, what ad company GroupM, part of marketing giant WPP announced proudly that she buys \ for its digital media "an aggressive new anti-piracy policies adopted". What was meant by it supplier, the it off with them, worked on a huge display of a list of websites that it had declared, were banned "pirate sites" - defined as "sites that piracy or support any illegally distributed content. "That 's pretty wide. Indeed, TorrentFreak their hands on the list and found many more bizarre entries, including the Internet Archive (archive.org) and BitTorrent 's corporate side - none of which have anything to do with "piracy" . There are some other shockers on the list, including the popular web video site / alternate YouTube, Vimeo, the site about as far from a "Pirate ', as you can find. Amazingly, there 's also SoundCloud, which has become one of the most popular tools for musicians, Promote their own music in those days. That 's the place where the Beastie Boys streamed their new album. A pirate site? Are they crazy? You can find the full list embedded below.

While there are many oddities on the list, we wanted one aspect of the list, show it, that Universal Music has decided the war on the online hip-hop ecosystem that promotes his music in a big way to appears to explain is to explore - and some of these sites are hit again. Are first of all, it 's pointed out that these blogs and Web sites are considered instrumental to the promotion of hip-hop world, and Universal Music, dass know, in conversations with some of the people involved in the sites that experienced They pretty quickly that it traces and other promotional information from insiders at Universal Music to - including high execs - all the time. In addition, hip-hop artists themselves regularly rely on the same pages, and connect people to them via their own blogs and Twitter feeds. And yet a number of these sites is at GroupM 's list ... and they got there, because Universal Music said GroupM to those sites on the list:

GroupM 's customers produce their own content - such as Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal Music and Summit Entertainment, which produces the popular Twilight series of vampire movies - have their own lists of pirate websites together to create a master copy.

While I know don 't that this company could be responsible for some of the other headscratchers on the list, is the attack on hip-hop web sites that remember fully to Universal Music of many of the participating sites, and they 're not happy. Among the list, for example, Vibe.com, the online website for Vibe Magazine, founded by Quincy Jones, of all people, and to this day as one of the the Main sources for news and information about the Hip-Hop and R & B worlds. And yet it is' s \ on the list as Pirate site ? Really?

Back in 2009, Vibe produces a large list of "50 hottest rap blogs." This is basically a who 's list of the top locations in hip-hop, and the places most Music producer want to see their music appear, because, as 's the attention they get in those days. But if you run this list, you'll see a pattern start. A lot of the linked pages are at GroupM 's "prohibited" list. I went through the top 12 sites on the list, and seven they are "prohibited" as piracy sites, although some of the most popular advertising medium for both artists and labels. Also, did back a group of top hip-hop blogs for a while to form what was called the New Music Cartel - and every one of those sitesis on the "prohibited" list.

And, of course, is that Vibe list a few years old. There are many other top music / hip-hop Web sites that have been taken for reasons unclear even to the list, and they 're not happy about it. For example, there 's Complex, an up-and-coming and incredibly popular lifestyle magazine for 18-34 male population. Somehow, they 're on the list, and the magazine / site' s editor-in-Chief has recently launched its frustration on Twitter, called Universal Music and it means to say, Universal Music is getting less coverage:
Other pages on the list are similar to sour, but not all 's willing to speak publicly about it. Those who should be angry are the musicians who rely on these pages, to hear their works to be to build a fan base, and popular, because Universal Music makes that harder for them. There are mixed opinions about why Universal Music is the attack on hip-hop blog ecosystem. It 's "left / right" ignorance of the theory in which the lawyers of Universal Music, who helped put together this list are so disconnected from reality that they don' t recognize that they ' re trying to shut down the very sites that leave the actions of the business (and the artist himself). It 's even more nefarious theory that Universal Music to have health, which is dependent on such sites for promotions, and seeks to shut down to limit to a few of them where it can focus its action efforts - an attempt perhaps even prop some "friendly" sites they want to rule the market over the competition.

Either way, this seems like more evidence of how ridiculous it is to claim it's easy to define "rogue sites." Given the chance, it looks like Universal Music has defined it as sites it doesn't like. The fact that this list includes all sorts of sites that clearly are not piracy sites should give anyone who supports bills like PROTECT IP pause. Defenders of these laws like to say that it's obvious what is and what is not a rogue site -- yet here you have Universal Music and GroupM showing how that definition can be quite broad, and extremely questionable.

No matter what, it seems likely that this move will start at Universal Music in a big, bad way to the rear. It 's like what would happen if a record company suddenly told the radio as "piracy" and said that its artists have couldn' t no longer appear on the radio. It proposes that a company so out of touch with how people learn about new music these days that it has no business being in the business of promoting artists. It should also serve as a warning to any artist thinking of signing with Universal Music. Why would a label that is active, signing to kill some of the best locations for promoting your music? I reached for Universal Music and asked for some comments and answers to some questions raised in this article, and (unsurprisingly) have heard absolutely nothing in response.

Permalink | Comments | E-Mail This Story