Ola Englund, a guitarist and YouTuber famous for his musical creations and instructional videos, recently posted a video on his YouTube channel called “Some A$$hole Stole My Music,” in which he expresses his frustration over a case of theft of his musical works. An unidentified individual claimed several of her tracks on streaming platforms and even attempted to monetize Ola’s videos featuring her own music. This scandalous situation pushed Ola to speak out and inform his subscribers about this growing problem for artists.
Blatant theft from YouTube and Spotify
In his video, Ola explains that he received a copyright infringement claim on two of his recent videos, where he plays his own track Cringey AFfrom his album Starzinger (2021). The claim, from a rights holder based in China, noted that his music was claimed by an entity called Merlin e music Tencent. This type of complaint results in the loss of monetization of the videos, thus transferring advertising revenue to the complainant.
Outraged, Ola took a closer look at the complainant and discovered that his tracks were also being used on streaming platforms like Spotify under another artist’s name. He describes the musical content of the profile as “questionable” and probably generated by artificial intelligence, with very short pieces, which even included another of his titles, Time (Will Not Heal)which he wrote for The Haunted.
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A long and frustrating procedure
Ola immediately disputed the claims via YouTube, saying he owns the rights to his own tracks. However, the appeal process took time and put his income on hold for the duration of the proceedings. Additionally, he still hasn’t won the YouTube dispute (his claim having been rejected) and faces the daunting task of removing stolen music from streaming platforms such as Spotify.
This music theft highlights a growing problem for independent artists, who are seeing their work illegally claimed and monetized by third parties. Ola laments the time and energy he has to spend solving this case, time that could have been spent creating new music.
Fan support more important than ever
Despite this frustrating situation, Ola wanted to thank his subscribers and fans for their continued support, whether through listening to his music on the right platforms or purchasing his albums. He stressed the importance of this support in keeping his YouTube channel and his musical career alive.
