I think it’s been a great move with AJ allowing rights registered music but I’ve come to realise that it was very easy for someone in the past to purchase a non registered song from AJ, rename it and register it under their name as the songwriter/publisher with a performing rights society.
There’s a tv licensing company I found recently in America who seemed to have a huge database of music they’re licensing out to tv production company’s, I’m suspecting their database has a lot of music purchased from AJ and renamed.
I found one of my AJ songs had been purchased from me on AJ in 2011, given a new name and was registered with ascap under the new song title so the company could collect performance and publishing royalties from it. This is when the old AJ rules where in place so if I ever heard my music on tv I would just presume it was from an AJ sale.
I have since filed a copyright takedown to the company that took my audio and I have since contacted ascap and my rights society., AJ was very helpful in offering advice. Hopefully thats the end of it for me.
Obviously this person registered my music under the new name in 2011 so for me trying to prove I own the song is difficult because of the old envato laws about not registering with a performing right society, they have my audio registered at an earlier date than me The only place with the earliest date is my actual upload on AJ
AJ users - If you ever find your music anywhere on the web with a different title just have a quick search on ascap or bmi etc and see if your AJ music has been renamed and registered to someone else.
I think this has to do with youtube. When you upload a song to youtube or anyone uploads a song to youtube, you make it available to be downloaded and also forfeit some of your control over it.
I do not have a lot of tracks and sales, while does not faced with this. As variant to share your material watermarked only. I think registration in PRO may reduce sales on AJ, here it is necessary to seek a happy medium )
This reminds me of thieves registering your music on AdRev when you have not done it yourself. This shows that we need protection for our music. Having music out there that is not protected by AdRev and by PRO is exposing ourselves to theft.
It’s scary that someone could actually purchase a license for $10.00, download the song and then give it a new name, register it with ascap under the new name and then start selling licenses to tv companies, then inturn fill out cue sheets with the new artist and new track name, no one is non the wiser! very scary stuff! especially if your song is royalty free and not registered with ascap as you then have to prove you was the first person with the song.
Hello man,
No PRO doesnt cover the copyright terms in my experience and knowledge
. They just only collect royalties from the commercial medias. If you wanna copyright your assets, just go to copyrightoffice goverment of the USA and they will cover your copyright.
The only place with the earliest date is my actual upload on AJ