The Depressing State of the Music Industry, or: How Artists Must Learn to Not Cover Songs Nor Give Them Away For Free

I received an email from Google in August of 2013 explaining how the status of the two cover albums I recorded around Christmas time in years past had been put on hold from distribution from Google’s Music service. I inquired as to why this happened and the following is the email exchange that ensued.

August 23, 2013 from artist-support@google.com:

Hello,

Thanks for contacting artist support. It appears your albums on hold due to a policy violations that you were sent email’s about. Please reply to the emails regarding this issue.

Thanks
Jazlyn
Google Play Artist Support

I had responded to the emails in question when they were originally sent to me, which I explained, and was prompted to send a copy of those emails to Jazlyn. After providing the prior emails I received the following.

August 27, 2013 from artist-support@google.com:

Hello Omid,

Thanks for providing this information as it allowed me to look up your case. Your album” A Christmas Evening With FLomid 2008″ does indeed include third party material and we need legal proof of rights to sell and distribute. We need more than a written statement. Please read below for more information and let me know if you have any questions.

It remains unclear to us whether you possess all necessary rights for the this albumIf you are certain that you possess all of these rights, please respond to this email
with a verbatim confirmation of the following statements:

I swear under penalty of perjury that I own or have otherwise legally
acquired all necessary rights to use the copyrighted content appearing in
my submission, and to distribute it via my Google Play artist hub account.I understand that misrepresentation of rights ownership or permission may subject me to severe legal and financial penalties.

Please also respond with evidence of your legal rights to this content. Forms of accepted evidence are:
A copy of your contract with the rightsholder
A copy of your Notice of Intention to Obtain a Compulsory License, including evidence of service of that notice

To learn more about copyright, please see the following articles:
Basic copyright information
https://support.google.com/googleplay/artists/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1728994
Legal rules of the road
https://support.google.com/googleplay/artists/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1712984

Thanks
Jazlyn
Google Play Artist Support

To which I replied:

The only evidence I have of my legal rights to this content is the following statement:
I swear under penalty of perjury that I own or have otherwise legally
acquired all necessary rights to use the copyrighted content appearing in
my submission, and to distribute it via my Google Play artist hub account.

I understand that misrepresentation of rights ownership or permission may
subject me to severe legal and financial penalties.

Please advise.
Best,
Omid Majdi

Google quickly responded:

Hello Omid,

Thank you for your response. Since this content is copyrighted you will need to provide the correct documents. Because you have failed to confirm your rights to exploit third-party copyrights used in your release, we are unable to approve your album for sale at this time. Should you acquire the necessary rights in the future, please respond to this email with evidence so that we may re-evaluate your submission. Continued submission of copyrighted material will result in suspension of this account.

Thanks
Jazlyn
Google Play Artist support

I was hoping that the fact that I am looking for no monetary gain and simply trying to give these songs away for free would allow me to continue providing my covers on Google Play Music.

So I wrote:

Hi Jazlyn,

I’m listing these songs for free and I’m willing to take any risks that may be associated with this.

By comparison, one of the songs I cover, Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together can be found on YouTube through 947,000 search results. I could go ahead and upload my cover there and not experience these issues, but I would much rather use Google Play for the convenience. It would literally cost me hundreds of dollars to give my music away just because they happen to be cover songs, despite the fact that I am not making any money from it and despite the fact that I am giving proper attribution in each title to the original artist. Please advise.

Best,
Omid Majdi

Seems like Jazlyn didn’t want to keep going back and forth with me on this so Justin was brought in.

Justin from Google Play Artist support then wrote:

Hi Omid,

It sounds like you are not understanding the importance of complying with copyrights. I would suggest you read the Google Play artist hub Terms of Use at:
https://play.google.com/intl/en-US_ALL/about/artist-terms.html

Then, read YouTube’s Terms of Use, Community Guidelines and copyright tutorials:
http://www.youtube.com/t/terms
http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines
http://www.youtube.com/yt/copyright/what-is-copyright.html

It doesn’t matter whether you can see similar songs on YouTube or elsewhere – you alone are responsible for verifying that you have the rights to use third-party copyrighted material.

You already represented to us that you did have these rights, and then you made statements to the contrary, saying you were willing to ‘take the risk.’ We are not willing to take this risk with you, which is why you need to prove your rights to us.
Continuing to misrepresent yourself is a violation you agreed to when you signed up for the artist hub (and YouTube), and will result in the termination of your accounts.

Let me know if you have any further questions on this.

Regards,
Justin
The Google Play artist support team

I then tried to use some philosophical persuasion:

Hi Justin,

You are correct. I do not understand the importance of complying with copyrights. This is not necessarily the appropriate venue for expressing my larger concerns about the copyright process, particularly when it comes to music, but please consider this:

An artist who creates an original sculpture, or an architect who designs a unique building – both of which can and are classified as a work of art. A photographer then takes a unique photograph of that work of it, the photograph itself becomes an original work of art. There are no limitations other than a simple attribution of the subject (in this case the sculpture or the building), if that.

I consider my music to be that photograph and all I am trying to do is give it away for free, not profit in any way, via Google’s Music platform. If this results in the termination of my account I understand, though I do have original (of my own writing) work under the the same account using the artist name HTML.

Please advise.
Best,
Omid Majdi

But in the end, they didn’t give a shit:

Hi Omid,

It doesn’t matter whether you are trying to profit from an infringement of copyright or not, it’s still illegal. Please go read the links I provided. We didn’t create the law, we just have to enforce it.

Regards,
Justin
The Google Play artist support team.

So for future reference:
Covering songs and trying to give them away for free through Google Play: illegal without proper copyright which will cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in licensing fees.
Covering songs and making money off of YouTube ad revenue: legal and profitable.