Music blogging has been undergoing several changes in recent years, and one of the newer trends that’s starting to rear it’s ugly head is the unexpected shut-down of a website’s Twitter account.
Copyright is an obvious issue that comes up often these days—our friends at DailyChiefers still have their OG Twitter suspended for posting a 30-second clip of a Rae Sremmurd music video with a link to the corresponding post. Granted, it’s a weird situation; of course that content is owned by someone, but at the same time, monetization on Twitter isn’t really prevalent so there’s nothing gained from it financially, and it’s clear that Chiefers was just supporting the Interscope signees, only bolstering the label’s campaign for the release.
This is just one of many examples we’ve seen so far this year, with the latest installment of “what the fuck, Twitter?” coming today.
Respected outlets like The FADER, Pigeons and Planes, HipHopNMore & others all found their Twitter accounts suspended Tuesday morning, and after doing some twesearch I stumbled upon HHNM’s owner Navjosh stating that Atlantic Records was the reason behind HHNM’s account suspension.
We posted Young Thug's track list. Atlantic complained to twitter. They suspended us https://t.co/jATENGpZQj
— Navjosh (@Navjosh) June 27, 2017
Yup a track list for an album. Basically it's not safe to post anything! https://t.co/WM4C6jjHFZ
— Navjosh (@Navjosh) June 27, 2017
Yes and we even credited the site we got it from https://t.co/qdfHSlrz2t
— Navjosh (@Navjosh) June 27, 2017
After reading the tweets, it’s obvious that he was trying to color inside the lines and promote the album, only to be penalized for it. He did specify that he’s not sure if that’s the same reason why the other accounts got suspended, but I think that’s more than likely the case. It may not be Atlantic Records behind it directly, though at the very least it seems to stem from them.
In my opinion, this is weak as fuck. Copyright is a sticky subject, but it’s fucking ridiculous that publications are getting in trouble for promoting the content instead of stealing it, no matter who is getting them shut down. It’s not like they’re re-uploading a Kanye West song to Youtube or SoundCloud to make money off of, they’re doing the legwork for the label in helping get the word out. If I’m not mistaken, isn’t that, like, the whole reason why labels shell out so much money to PR companies, to get the word out about the newest release or announcement they’re pushing?
Regardless, if the label and the artist are really the only ones gaining from a website promoting a tracklist, a video or single, why go after a website’s Twitter account?
Seems pretty lame to us, but let us know what you think.