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Hey, this is Matthew Rix with the Music Business newsletter
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and today's email. We're gonna jump right into because it's
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a long one. I think this is a good one
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for everybody when it comes to the internet scams. This
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woman basically he's lost everything. We're gonna hear her story
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and then try to help her. So let's dive into
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the email. She says, Matthew, I don't really know how
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to start this email except to say that I'm just heartbroken.
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I've made a lot of mistakes trying to chase my dream,
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and I feel completely lost right now. A lot of
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people you might be watching this or listening and be like, well,
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we all made mistakes, girl, keep you chat on, just
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hang on, just hang on. Most people, I like to
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call it the illusion of action. Most people will do
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something because they have to make a move. They have
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to they have to do something to make make their
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careers feel like that's going in the right direction. They
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make stupid moves, they make bad decisions. Sometimes it can
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it can set you back in this situation, probably changes everything,
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probably changes the entire trajectory of your career as an artist.
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So she says, I feel completely lost right now. And
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here's her story. About eighteen months ago, my grandfather passed
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away and he inherited me two hundred thousand dollars. He
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always loved my music and believed in me and wanted
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me to use that money to take my music career
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to the next level. Well one, sorry for your loss too.
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You get two hundred thousand dollars sitting in a bank
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account and we just googled how to blow two hundred
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thousand dollars as an artist? She said. Prior to this,
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I had a few singles that I released through District Kid.
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Things were starting to build a little bit at a
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couple of thousand plays in the lifespan of my singles.
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So I thought, with this inheritance, this was my chance
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to really make my dream happen. Terrible mindset, terrible mindset
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to have, She says. I found a producer online and
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I went to Atlanta and recorded a full length album
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twelve songs total. I don't, okay, let's stop there. Why
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why why would anybody decide I need to release twelve songs.
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You know, I've done like one or two singles. Now
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it's time for me to get a twelve song full
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length album out. There like, why why would you do that?
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She says. The production quality is absolutely incredible. I sound
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like a professional artist. She says. It cost me one
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hundred and twenty thousand dollars to make one hundred and
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twenty thousand dollars for twelve songs ten thousand dollars a
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song from a producer she found on the internet. She says,
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I still believe that this was worth it, and I
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wanted my album to be done right, and I'm very
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proud of the finished product. What I didn't realize until
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later after the album was released that the producer slipped
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in a clause in the contract. Slipped in the clause
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in the contract giving him sixty percent of all royalties
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from the album and fifty percent of publishing. Okay, one,
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he probably didn't slip it in because you don't mention
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anything about an entertainment lawyer. It probably was in there,
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and you signed away sixty percent of all royalties from
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the album fifty percent of the publishing. Did you guys
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co write the songs? Did you just bring them in
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a complete song? I don't really know. You don't really
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tell us sixty percent royalties As a producer, he should
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be getting what is called You know, there's a producer,
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there's a producer royalty, there's mechanicals that at best should
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add up to four percent, not sixty. He actually owns
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more of the royalties from this album than you do.
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This is what I tell you, guys. Get an entertainment lawyer.
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Don't get a real estate lawyer or a banking lawyer
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or a person going through law school to read your contracts.
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You just spent one hundred and twenty thousand dollars for
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twelve songs, gave away sixty percent of all your royalties
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from this album. I'm sure as well. I'm sure there's
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a clause in there about how you got to work
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with them for future releases as well, when one thousand
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dollars would have caught this stuff. Now you're probably thinking
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we'll take them to court and you guys can reda go. Absolutely,
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But we have another problem we're gonna get to in
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a second. So the email continues. Once the album was done,
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I went back to my distro kid account and I
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released my album Congratulations, she says. Then I hired a
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promotional company that my producer recommended. The producer who's charging
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you on a hundred twenty thousand dollars for twelve songs.
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Who's taking sixty percent of your royalty? Said, Hey, I
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got this promotion company. They do great. Why don't you
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work with them? When when you contacted this produce. I
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don't mean to beat you up. I just got to ask,
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when you contacted this producer, did you tell him I
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was just inherited two hundred thousand dollars and he was
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just like, let's go. So she hires this promotional company
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to help get her playlist placements. We talked about that
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the other day because they were going to get her
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organic promotions. She paid them twenty five thousand dollars, and
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for a moment, it looked like it was working. She says,
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within the first forty five days, my album hit over
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seven million streams on Spotify. So when this was going
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on and in forty five days, you're getting seven million
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streams on Spotify, did you happen to look inside like
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the Spotify artist app and see where these plays were
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coming from? Where your plays like? Where you getting like
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five thousand plays like that? And then it would be
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quiet for twenty three hours and then the next you know,
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the next day you'd get five thousand more seven million
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streams on Spotify and forty five days, and you were
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not asking a single question. She says. I thought my
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life was finally changing. Well it did change, and you're
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gonna you're gonna find out how right here, she says,
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But then overnight everything's fell apart. Spotify flagged the seven
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million streams as fraudulent bot plays' so how it goes?
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She says. They pulled my entire album down and notified
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distro Kid that I was involved in fraudulent bot plays.
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Then my distro account was frozen, I was banned from
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uploading any future releases, and I can't distribute my money.
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She says. I am completely devastated, and I don't know
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what to do in this situation. I mean, you're screwed
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your your sol because let's be real, it wasn't your intention,
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but you did have fraudulent bot plays. I mean, if
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your last couple of singles before we're doing a couple
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of thousand, and now you're getting seven million streams and
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it's all coming, you know, they're all only playing the
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song for thirty five seconds, you know, and it's just
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it's hitting and then everything disappears for twenty three hours,
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Like that's fraudulent plays, and you know, for all you
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people want Spotify to pay more. Spotify is trying to
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figure out how to crack down even quicker on these
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fraudulent plays. And while they still are paying artists for
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this stuff, there's some people out there who are making
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a lot of money with these types of scams from Spotify,
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not even from the artist. So she's locked out of
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her distro Kid account. She can't get her money. Album's
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down everywhere. I mean, you spend one hundred and twenty
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thousand dollars on an album and it was it was pulled,
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So she continues, she said, still trying to fix things.
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I contacted distro Kid, but to no help. They will
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not work with me because they said that I was
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involved in fraud. You were, she says. I then decided
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to go to tune Core and rio blowed the album,
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thinking that distro Kid was the one that was blocking
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it from Spotify, Apple Music, in et cetera. But every
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streaming platform has my album flagged and it was not released.
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So I paid tune corep money to distribute an album
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that they refused to release. Yeah, you're flagged. I bet
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probably what happened was when Spotify notified distro Kid that
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there's a seven million stream fraud going on. Distro Kid
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just tagged your artist's name, album, the metadata inside your
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songs as fraud. And now no matter where you go,
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you're you're out of luck. So she says, apparently my
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name and music were flagged as fraudulent. Yep, And she says,
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I cannot release anything right now, not my full length album.
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I can't release a single. I can't do anything. I
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am blacklisted. Remember the producer who you paid one hundred
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and twenty thousand dollars and he owned sixty percent of
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your royalties, recommended this company to give you organic place,
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She continues, I feel like I've been branded as a
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fake artist when that was never my intention. Well, you know,
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scammers look for people who are trusting and have two
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hundred thousand dollars just laying around, itching to get their
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career going overnight, he continues, In desperation, I decided to
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rehire the same producer again, pay him another twenty thousand
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dollars to remix the entire album so I can release
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it under a new name. Your producer recommended a company
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he's probably involved in. Okay about that company's out of Atlanta.
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You paid them, what was it, twenty five thousand dollars.
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He recommended they destroy your career within forty five days.
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Now you're trying to figure out what to do, and
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you come up with another twenty thousand dollars. So I
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think between one hundred and twenty the twenty five thousand
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for promotion this, we're up to one hundred and sixty
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five thousand dollars of your grandfather's two hundred thousand dollars
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to help your career. So they're going to remix the
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entire album to change the metadata inside, and then you
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can release it under a new name. That might work. Okay,
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that actually might work. I have a feeling that if
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you told me that the producer came up with this idea,
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this isn't probably the first time this has happened, But
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she's gonna she's gonna remax it for twenty thousand dollars.
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Producers made one hundred and forty thousand dollars on twelve
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songs here now probably a cut from the promotion company
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as well. Promotion company, it's gonna release it under a
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new name. The question I have about that is whatever
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real fans you do have when you change your name,
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they how do they find you? If you play shows?
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How do they find you? Because now you're under a
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new name. Because if you're gonna go down this road
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and you get busted, it's gonna be for You're gonna
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get You're gonna get blacklisted everywhere again. So now even
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in your promotion, I would not have any reference to
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the old U. So those fans might just think that
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you got married or had a baby, or got hit
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by a bus, and you just your music's gone and
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you're just done with music forever. She says, I don't
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even know if that's the right move. I don't know
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what other I mean, the other move you could make.
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And I don't even know if this would work. And
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you probably should consult an attorney about this. You probably
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should have consulted an attorney about all of this. But
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you could contact a lawyer, an entertainment lawyer, show them
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all the paperwork, show them everything, and see if legal
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could get involved. To contact distro Kid and the DSPs
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to prove, to have them prove your case, because just
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because you email a contact distric Kid or Tunecore and go, oh,
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this wasn't me. They don't care. It's AI that's even
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responding and reading that email. Anyways, that is an option
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you could do, because what I am afraid about is
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that if you go and release it's under a new name,
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you remix the album. If there's anything in there that's
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flagged from the previous release, it could ruin that. Now
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you're out another twenty thousand dollars, She says, I'm just
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trying to find a way to get my music back
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out there and maybe recover some of what I've lost.
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I mean, you might be able to get your music
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back out there. I don't know how you're going to
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recover what you've lost because right now we're up to
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one hundred and sixty five thousand dollars and you have
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an album that is literally, in DSP world toxic as
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all get out. Is this hopeless? I mean, this is
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a cautionary tale of what not to do. Yes, but
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oh wait, it gets worse. She says. That same promotional
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company also manage my Instagram and TikTok. Was there nobody
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in your life at this moment in time who was saying,
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what are you doing? What are you doing. You found
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a producer on the internet. How's what you said. You've
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paid him one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Now he
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has this promotional company that keeps recommending, and now we're
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up to thirty five thousand dollars for promotions. She says.
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This promotion company managed my Instagram and TikTok. I paid
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them ten thousand dollars. Thirty five thousand. We're up to
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this promotion company and they grew my account to two
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hundred and twenty thousand followers on Instagram and over four
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hundred thousand on TikTok. But now my reach is completely dead.
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I wonder why she says every post gets five views
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if that well, because the same idea. They had to
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run bots through your spot account to run your numbers up.
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This is how they got you on TikTok and Instagram.
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So when you were on Instagram and you sell that
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you got two hundred and twenty thousand followers and over
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four hundred thousand followers on TikTok, you and you're not
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getting any emails, you're not getting any comments, probably not
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getting any likes on these posts. You're just getting just
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a gang of followers. You didn't. You didn't ask any questions.
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You didn't go, hey, why am I getting all these
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followers but no traction? Why am I still getting the
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same consistent five thousand plays every day or ten thousand plays? Well,
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you had to get more than that to get seven million.
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The ask any questions, or you don't tell me you did.
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She says, I feel like my entire creative career on