Ghost artists on Spotify

The whole ContentID system is irreversibly broken as long as people are allowed to submit content for registration over the internet and not in person under penalty of perjury.

A ton of fake artists take widely used commercial sample packs and copyright-free music, create simple songs and then register them via companies that submit them to ContentID databases. They then use it to monetize content created by other people on Youtube. There is no way to report these because the listener is not the copyright owner.

Just two of the countless cases I've come across:

JasoN SHaRk - Let the Music Play. I've heard a track from an indie artist predating the release by more than half a year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEGgea4Z2co

Anitoly Akilina - A Nightmare (on My Street). This is a bold one; it uses a free track from Kevin MacLeod, also used in Kerbal Space Program. This means KSP gameplay videos get monetized. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVbZT1iFnlM

> uses a free track from Kevin MacLeod, also used in Kerbal Space Program. This means KSP gameplay videos get monetized.

Somebody made a bad rap song that samples the title screen music from Super Metroid, and goes around sending automated copyright claims to everyone who streams the game on Twitch. Every speedrunner and randomizer player has to deal with these bogus claims every couple of days.

A few months ago, the speedrun community held a 47-way race on the game's 30th anniversary: https://racetime.gg/sm/dynamic-plowerhouse-1749 It took a little while for everyone to ready up and start the race, so we all just sat on the title screen for ~10 minutes until everyone was good to go. The next day, dozens of copyright claims went out.

This has been going on for like 5 years; we dispute the copyright claims every single time, and people have contacted Twitch support many times. Yet, they won't do anything to stop the same person from filing thousands of false copyright claims for music he doesn't even own.