How Fake Song Lyrics Ended Up On Spotify (pitchfork.com) 26
DevNull127 writes: More bad news for Spotify from Conde Naste via their music site Pitchfork:
Last month, in the tone of a band reluctantly summoned from some deep seabed, My Bloody Valentine issued a prickly public service announcement: "Just noticed that Spotify has put fake lyrics up for our songs without our knowledge," the Irish shoegazers tweeted. "These lyrics are actually completely incorrect and insulting." Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde chimed in to report that they, too, had found gibberish transcriptions of their famously elliptical songs on streaming services.
The lyric snafu was not limited to Spotify. Over the past decade, a data platform called Musixmatch has assumed dominion over the world of lyrics, securing sub-licensing deals with the major publishing companies. The lyrics you see on Spotify, Tidal, and Amazon Music usually come through Musixmatch, via a data pipeline that links the platform's enormous transcriber community with a small core of paid quality-control monitors. (Apple Music has a dedicated lyrics team handling most of its transcriptions.)
The affair illustrates tech capitalism's discombobulation when faced with a key element in art, which is the inexplicable. I think the problem, though, is not Musixmatch and its protocol so much as the service's unilateral rollout, with quasi-official imprimatur, on platforms already under fire for flattening artistic identity and repackaging music as scaleable content. Having sub-licensed the rights, Musixmatch is perfectly entitled to crowd-source transcriptions and sell them on. But artists should know whose words are being put in their mouths—and that, should they wish, they have the right to opt out.
Last month, in the tone of a band reluctantly summoned from some deep seabed, My Bloody Valentine issued a prickly public service announcement: "Just noticed that Spotify has put fake lyrics up for our songs without our knowledge," the Irish shoegazers tweeted. "These lyrics are actually completely incorrect and insulting." Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde chimed in to report that they, too, had found gibberish transcriptions of their famously elliptical songs on streaming services.
The lyric snafu was not limited to Spotify. Over the past decade, a data platform called Musixmatch has assumed dominion over the world of lyrics, securing sub-licensing deals with the major publishing companies. The lyrics you see on Spotify, Tidal, and Amazon Music usually come through Musixmatch, via a data pipeline that links the platform's enormous transcriber community with a small core of paid quality-control monitors. (Apple Music has a dedicated lyrics team handling most of its transcriptions.)
The affair illustrates tech capitalism's discombobulation when faced with a key element in art, which is the inexplicable. I think the problem, though, is not Musixmatch and its protocol so much as the service's unilateral rollout, with quasi-official imprimatur, on platforms already under fire for flattening artistic identity and repackaging music as scaleable content. Having sub-licensed the rights, Musixmatch is perfectly entitled to crowd-source transcriptions and sell them on. But artists should know whose words are being put in their mouths—and that, should they wish, they have the right to opt out.
Rights assignment (Score:2)
"should they wish, they have the right to opt out"
They assigned their rights to someone else as part of their contract. They can buy those right back, if they want. If they do then they can opt out.
It's pretty much spelled out in the contract that they signed.
Reporters are great at talking about how "it should be." But if the actual artist believed that they would change their behavior...but they don't, because money.
Re: (Score:2)
Not all contracts assign rights in said manner. Most do, but there are plenty of labels that don't do that, mostly smaller ones. Precisely what is transferred is also important, is it the recording? The song as an integrated whole? Or each part (such as the lyrics)?
Re:Rights assignment (Score:5, Informative)
jd pointed out:
Not all contracts assign rights in said manner. Most do, but there are plenty of labels that don't do that, mostly smaller ones. Precisely what is transferred is also important, is it the recording? The song as an integrated whole? Or each part (such as the lyrics)?
Actually, it's less straightforward than that [tunecore.com]. Labels typically own the recordings made by their artists/indentured servants, but they seldom own the rights to the songs themselves. Instead, those are 50/50 co-owned by the songwriter(s) and their publishing company, with the publishing company owning the exclusive right to license the lyrics and/or "sheet" music.
Then, as if the system weren't intentionally complex enough, the publisher always contracts with a performance-royalty collection organization (ASCAP and BMI being the two biggies in the English-speaking world) and licensing agent (principally The Harry Fox Agency in the USA) to enforce payment for the performance of the songs under license in any public venue or via any transmission medium.
It's all in the hallowed tradition of "Hollywood accounting" of making it as difficult as possible for the actual creative persons to track the money, and the corporate bean counters to obscure its trail ...
Re: (Score:2)
So we need a copy of the Necronomicon to perform a bean-counter banishing ritual.
Re: (Score:2)
obvious solution (Score:3)
Just allow bands to submit their own lyrics to their own songs. They'd probably do it for free. Jesus.
Re:obvious solution (Score:4, Informative)
They already can. From Musixmatch front page:
"Verified artists are able to manage and distribute their own lyric catalog on any international music channel â" such as Spotify or Instagram."
If you can't be bothered to do so and expect fans to decipher your mumbling, don't get mad when they get it wrong sometimes.
Re:obvious solution (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: obvious solution (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Who cares? Not spotify, because they have an open complaint against Apple for unfair competition. Thus, if Spotify loses subscribers, it's Apple's fault. It's going to be Apple's fault even if the user is Android, or they move to a non-Apple service.
Thus, if users should happen to leave Spotify for various reason
Re: obvious solution (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Lyrics are copyrighted. These kinds of lyrics sites skirt the law.
I'm sure Spotify has permissions, though.
Re: (Score:2)
In these two cases, part of the art is the ambiguity of the lyrics (and in the case of the Cocteau Twins, often if there are even any lyrics, but that's another issue). Printing them, especially the wrong lyrics, takes an aesthetic choice away from the artists.
Long-time listener to both bands, btw. I still have no idea what most of Loveless means lyrically ...
Re: (Score:2)
Speaking of... (Score:2)
Excuse Me (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
There's a Bathroom on the Right [youtube.com]
I noticed it too (Score:2)
The band sings 'In the garden of Eden"
They write: In-a-gadda-da-vida.
New captcha opportunities (Score:3)
Uk49s (Score:1)
So what you're saying (Score:2)
So what they're saying is that the system is working correctly
re:: (Score:1)
re:: (Score:1)