Run The Jewels‘ El-P has accused Spotify of failing to protect its artists from fraud.
The rapper and producer hit out at the streaming service in a series of tweets earlier today (October 19) after a fan pointed out that someone else had recently uploaded music using his name.
“No matter how many times I pay my lawyer to take them down, @Spotify just doesn’t care enough to not let other people upload songs to my page or my albums that I own to theirs,” he wrote. “That’s the type of personal touch they’ve brought to the industry. $250 every time.”
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1053278746772410373
“So not only do we get payed a pittance on @Spotify but we actually have to pay hundreds a month simply to regulate what gets sold in our name,” he continued. “I’m tired of being nice about it… the world is descending in to [sic] fascism I’ll be damned if I care about ruffling feathers at Spotify.”
El-P later clarified his grievance with Spotify, telling his followers that he “regularly [has] to send take down notices not only for people using my name for their music and it appearing on my artist page, but for people uploading my albums to their page and assumedly having my money diverted to them until we catch it.”
He also said that “Spotify doesn’t help” when it comes to resolving these cases of fraud. He did add, however, that Apple Music is far more proactive on this issue. Check out El-P’s tweets on the subject below.
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https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1053280702362501120
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https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1053285614836158464
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1053301025950429185
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1053303034388865024
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1053304131006414848
As pointed out by Pitchfork, Spotify’s website does offer a copyright infringement reporting form and an email and mailing contact for their legal department.
Earlier this year, it was announced that El-P would be scoring the forthcoming Al Capone biopic – which will star Tom Hardy as the infamous gangster.