The democracy of access that that internet has brought to music also has its downsides – but the idea of stealing an artist's music to pass off as your own is one few would have seen coming. And it's on the rise.
In the UK, Watford metal five-piece Assimilate have found themselves in a bizarre and frustrating situation when they reportedly discovered another band trying to pass off their December 2022-released second album Suffer In Silence album as their own work after reuploading it to Spotify.
“I noticed the album had songs titled very similarly to us and then noticed it was our album slightly slowed down and with the titles slightly changed. It was very strange," singer Jake Aston told the Watford Observer after he was tipped off by a confused friend who also works as a music promoter.
I felt violated that someone had stolen our intellectual property
“I was angry. I felt violated that someone had stolen our intellectual property,” he added guitarist Matt Bown, who works as a music West Herts College. He and the band were said to be "absolutely livid" another band - that hasn't been named - would try and pass off their hard work as their own.
Fortunately the band were able to convince Spotify that they were the injured party. "They were incredibly helpful," adds Jack. "They worked really fast and managed to get it down and contacted the distributor.”
The issue of intellectual property theft on Spotify is becoming an increasingly common issue on Spotify, the band were reportedly told by Spotify's copyright team. Last year synthwave artist Timecop1983 aka Jordy Leenaerts also saw his music taken down as a result of tracks being allegedly taken and used by another artist without permission.
You can check out the real Assimilate at Bandcamp and Suffer In Silence on Spotify below.
