Has MySpace turned it's back on rappers?

[Rukas]

Here is a little rant I wrote on my blog I wanted to share.

Mixtape tracks have become the staple of any good promotion campaign for Hip-Hop artists since 50 Cent popularized them with his G-Unit mixtapes. Since then everyone from 50, to Eminem, to Jay-Z, to Lil Wayne, to Drake have used "Industry beats," meaning instrumentals from commercially released songs, to record new songs over. I'll even go out on a limb and say that if it wasn't for this practice, 50 Cent would have never been discovered and signed nor would current artists like Drake. In fact, Drake has a remix of Santigold's "Unstoppable" up on his official MySpace right now doing exactly what I just described.


One of the other great self promotion avenues used to be MySpace.com. Every artist has a MySpace including myself and mixtape tracks used to go hand in hand with MySpace. I however began to neglect it in light of Twitter and Facebook, but recently decided to go back to it and post some new music and reestablish my connection with my fans on there.


Unfortunately, I found that every mixtape track that I tried to upload was rejected due to copyright infringement. I was unable to upload my song, with my own lyrics and vocals, over Jay-Z's "Run This Town" instrumental. I was unable to upload my version of Drake's "Forever" either, even though Drake has his version of a Santigold song on his profile right now. Ironic. Now, I know this isn't Drake's fault at all, it's purely MySpace's, and I seriously doubt he would have a problem with artists using instrumentals he used, why would he? He does it. We all do it. This is Hip-Hop. But apparently it seems that if you are not on a major label, MySpace wont let you do it.


What is worse is that mixtape tracks, remixes and Hip-Hop musicians are undoubtably what made MySpace rise to the top of online music social networking in the past simply because Hip-Hop was the first musical community to really embrace social networking. And no other type of artists turn over the large volume of recordings aimed directly at the Internet as rappers do.


MySpace offers musicians a chance to dispute the claim in case they've made a "mistake." I tried to explain everything I have written here to them and file a dispute, but unfortunately every time I clicked submit I got the typical MySpace "Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred. This error has been forwarded to MySpace's technical group" error.


Now, I am working on my own album with some great producers so this doesn't really stop my career, but what about the rapper who cant afford beats but wants to do what his idol 50 Cent did and use industry beats to get discovered by labels and producers? Well tough luck kid, because according to MySpace, you can't, but those that have already made it, can.


Whether this is MySpace's own doing, or whether they got pressured by labels into doing it, I don't know, either way it is hypocritical seeing as the biggest artists on those labels are all doing it without any problems on MySpace; so why can't the rest of us?


So unfortunately instead of using MySpace for what it prides itself on being about, music, I’ve had to go the round about way and upload the song to Usershare instead: Download rukas forever feat drake mp3


Now I'll just go spread it around on Twitter and Facebook like everyone else seems to be doing nowadays anyway.


Thanks a lot MySpace.

I seriously should have known better than to even try to go back to MySpace.

/me logs back into Twitter.

 

[S O F I]

fuck myspace.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

i stopped using myspace years ago. i only ever used it to follow artists (which i can now do from twitter).

the myspace layout is very cluttered and has way too many glittery graphics which i hate. - one reason why i love facebook and twitter over myspace. but the thing about myspace was the free music and links to free mixtapes and ep's. you dont get that as much over on facebook and twitter.

i logged into myspace about 5 mins before i saw this thread and the layout still isnt as good. very messy, but they are trying.

i dont know why theyre blocking out the remakes using the same instrumentals. whether or not someone is on a major label or not shouldnt make a difference because the principle is the same, activity is the same. the contract doesnt permit someone to do their own versions - that is u to the person themselves, not the company they are signed to. so myspace are being akward for some reason! most people use facebook and twitter now anyway, they can continue doing this because they will lost more users over to their rivals.

 

[ArtsyGirl]

yeah I think equality is called for here.. Copyright is a tricky thing but they can't pick and choose like that, or atleast they shouldn't.

I agree with myspace being cluttered and I much prefer the simpler layout of facebook. I haven't signed into myspace in months..

 

[Stred]

I only use myspace to have sex with 16 year old's. You should too.

 

[Shadows]

Honestly, Myspace isn't even a good place to promote music. All it has is stupid teens that wont buy your album. They will just download it. One should only put their music on myspace once they've made it for a more promo feature.

I suggest that you go on myspace and update your status and make bulletins about this very subject, but don't blog it.

Make some lines about how you offer music on twitter/facebook now....

as time passes you can probably even create your very own google wave?

 

[Casey]

MySpace aka Spam City.

Twitter is much better.

I've networked with more people and accomplished more as a result in the 2 years I've been on Twitter, then in the 5 or so years I've been on MySpace.

As for hosting music, I host it on my blog and on Bandcamp.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

casey rain to the rescueee...

lol.

 

[Casey]

here i ammmmm to save the dayyyyyyy!

 

[Bigg Limn]

ya I jus got the same shit w/ some freestyles I was uploading...go figure the copyright finder didnt recognize the Gucci Mane beat it let me upload lol

I first noticed this problem earlier this year w/ another freestyle over a Rick Ross beat...some shit itll let U put up still but a lot of shit gets found.

fuckin ghey

 

[THEV1LL4N]

they probably have some kind of audio recognition tool that automatically detects a banned instrumental from smaller unknown artists and prohibits the use.

or they take it down after a few days after moderating what has been uploaded.

not too sure, but one thing i know for sure is they are being idiots.

 

[Farzin]

People still use myspace?

 

[Da_Funk]

^People ever used myspace?

 

[Bigg Limn]

they probably have some kind of audio recognition tool that automatically detects a banned instrumental from smaller unknown artists and prohibits the use.

or they take it down after a few days after moderating what has been uploaded.

I think earlier it was the latter [moderated]; but now it blocked it as soon as I tried 2 upload it, even showed me what track had the copyright and shit lol

 

[yak pac fatal]

illuminati