Friday 5 January 2018

2017 - The year of impostors?

Is it just us or has anybody else noticed there seems to be a resurgence in people thinking up a band name and then just going with it whether or not it's already been done. Is it just a result of how music is now global? Our view of 2017 is it was the year of impostors. For example, how close is this to us?
https://www.beatport.com/artist/cyber-rhythm/602421

I wonder if they would be as quick to call themselves 'Qu-een' or 'Pinkish Floyd'? It seems nobody is safe. Our sound engineer and remixer also found someone in South America using his nom-de-musicien (nom de plume seemed wrong but you get the idea).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-kzY5x2Ryg

His response - upload his very first album to Youtube as a series of short videos showing the original CD purchased from mp3.com (back in the day, when it was the equivalent of Soundcloud and you could get a physical CD produced), along with a flyer from 1992 - probably some years before the imposter was born.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXN0Icqe3z0

I also heard about a local group calling themselves 'Jub Jub' who are really going to regret it when they find out about the original artist of that name, especially if they see this article:
https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/entertainment/2017-12-12-i-have-forgiven-myself-says-jub-jub/

Is it just laziness? I mean, there's the trap we all fall into when we play back something we've made and then we pick up on a hook or bass-line that we realise is from something we've heard before. How many times have you heard a track and been able to hear these similarities? Most of us try to avoid doing it and if we notice something obvious, we change it. It reaches a new level when it's an artist name being ripped off though. Even underground artists who shun the limelight deserve to not have their names so blatantly plagiarised. The copy-cats don't realise or don't respect the time and effort the original artists put into establishing their identity.

Bands come and go I suppose but we are going to do our bit to help protect our friends. We will no longer be publishing band names & song titles for our underground artists when they provide tracks for our demo mixes unless they request it. Instead we will maintain our own archive of submissions for historical reference.

As a footnote to anyone setting up a new band this year, take the time to do some basic checks. If someone already has the domain name, if they have tracks on Youtube, Spotify or Soundcloud or you find articles about a band with the same or very similar name via Google or Bing, then use it at your own risk. At some point we (the original artists of those names) are going to be asking ourselves whether it's better to keep on doing what we've always done, or sit back and let the no-win-no-fees lawyers provide for us in our old age. We will probably wait until until you're a bit richer and more famous before we do that - so all the best to you too in your risky endeavours for 2018.