Lily Amis: Respect Indie Artists Work

Artists, especially indie artists, put all their heart and soul into their work. They invest time, energy, and money to create masterpieces. Indie artists are not mainly fame- and fortune hunters, but motivated to inspire and empower music lovers with their passion and leave a legacy. They want to entertain, raise awareness and spread messages through the miracle of music and the power of lyrics like I do with my songs as an indie lyricist who is fortunate and blessed to collaborate with an insanely talented British producer, singer-songwriter, and vocalist.

With the music distribution system today as it is, indie artists need a music distributor to make their songs available to listeners all over the world. So they put all their TRUST and hope blindly into someone else’s hands, whose main job firstly is to distribute and secondly to collect the royalties for the artist/the copyright holder!

To understand the music distribution system, read this helpful blog post:

https://soundcharts.com/blog/music-distribution

To understand the payment system for artists, read this helpful blog post:

https://soundcharts.com/blog/music-streaming-rates-payouts

MY STORY:

After my recent experience with the Swedish Music distribution company Amuse.io based in Stockholm, I’m starting the #RespectIndieArtistsWork online petition to make sure that NO other indie artist and newcomer has to go through the same awful and unlawful treatment!

After two years of “partnership” and releasing 12 beautiful tracks, my artist account on Amuse.io was closed from one day to another in February 2024. I received an email saying that I no longer have access to my account and my tracks (babies) and so I couldn’t withdraw my royalties of two years.

I was shocked and felt helpless because I didn’t understand why, and I couldn’t communicate to the distributor. I sent emails, but didn’t receive any answer! This happened only three days before I was releasing my 12 track. So I didn’t know if my song would be released or not, which was very upsetting and unprofessional because of the promotion campaign that I had planned, like I do for every song release.

Losing full control over my work (my babies) was a wake-up call! Long story short:

My song was released as planned and Amuse.io had the audacity not only to hold back my royalties but also keep my 13 tracks “as hostage” for an entire month. They ignored my emails and didn’t care to take down my tracks from the music stores!

And no music store that I have contacted directly as the artist/copyright holder during an entire month was willing to take down my tracks with the exact same explanation:

“Our content team kindly advises you to reach out directly to your label or distributor to remove this content. Content of your artist profile is public information which we receive from third parties, including your label or distributor, and cannot be removed unilaterally by us.”

Meanwhile, I distributed all my tracks through a new distributor because Spotify Artist's Support told me that based on the Metadata, the new release would automatically replace the old release. And I thought this is THE solution to end this mess caused my Amuse.io.

Unfortunately, this was wishful thinking. It only worked on Spotify. All other music stores failed to replace my tracks and for a few days every single track was duplicated on all my artist profiles and I received the exact same answer from the music stores: “Regarding the duplicate content on your artist page, please continue to work with your distributor to resolve this issue as they are the ONLY ONE that can remove your content from the stores.”

If Amuse.io hadn’t finally taken down my tracks after more than a month - after my open letter on my blog and social posts to Amuses Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Roshanak Motman) I would still deal with this BS and would have ZERO say and control over my own work as the artist and copyright holder!

After my open letter, tweets, Instagram post, and stories, I finally received “an apology email” from Amuse.io saying the following: “Your releases were taken down as there are clear signs of streamfarming - please be careful about the companies you use when promoting your releases. As part of the deactivation process, your releases should have been taken down. Unfortunately, there was a technical error and this didn't happen. Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention, as we've now rectified the issue and your releases have been taken down.”

I didn’t even know what Streamfarming means! All I ever did was promote my tracks on social media and use Groover.co to promote my music to blogs, radios, labels, and Spotify playlisters. And as far as I know, promoting music is legal and not criminal!

As you can read, there is no mention of the royalties. Not one word!!! Also, NO serious artist in the world, who puts her heart and soul, time, energy, and money into a project and collaborates with a professional, blessed with the voice of an angel is interested in BOTS! What’s the point, when I want to inspire people with my meaningful and eye-opening song lyrics as an indie-lyricist? This doesn’t make sense!

So HOW and WHY on earth does a distributor have “the power” not only to insult and accuse a serious indie artist/copyright holder, BUT also the audacity to treat an indie artist like a criminal and keep the work “as hostage” and hold back the royalties? In what world/industry is such unprofessional and disrespectful treatment legal and OK?

With the #RespectIndieArtistsWork petition, I not only criticize and question the distribution companies' and music store's rules and “power” over artists/copyright holders' work but also the disrespectful treatment towards indie artists’ copyright in general. Especially in a time when AI (BOTS) are dominating the internet and causing damages everywhere.

Based on the system right now as it is, as soon as artists distribute music, they not only lose the “control and ownership” but also who, when, where, and how many times someone is listening to their music! Accusing serious artists of “streamfarming” is unprofessional. Treating artists disrespectful by denying access to their account and work and holding back the royalties is unlawful and morally wrong!

As the system is right now, distributors can discriminate indie artists as they wish with no consequences. Why? Because indie artists have no label, management, or law team behind them. This needs to CHANGE, considering der high number of daily song releases by indie artists worldwide, without whom the distributors and music stores would be screwed!

I demand respect and transparency for indie artists:

1. No distributor should be allowed to close an artist's account and deny access

2. No distributor should be allowed to take artists' babies/work as a “hostage”

3. No distributor should be allowed to take down tracks without the artist’s approval

4. No distributor should be allowed to hold back royalties

5. No distributor should be allowed to insult, accuse and discriminate indie artists

6. Distributors discriminating indie artists with unlawful actions must face legal consequences

7. Distributors misusing their “power” must face legal consequences

8. Distributors should not have the right to withdraw Artist earnings as they wish or make extra charges without notice, when they identify “AI” streamings!

9. Indie Artists must have the right to demand Takedowns from music stores directly

10. Indie Artists must have the right to ask for more transparency/royalty reports from music stores directly

11. Indie Artists must be treated with the same respect as signed artists by major labels

And finally, my advice to indie artists who I hope will support and sign this petition:

Be careful who you trust your babies to. Don’t be a fool like I was and trust a company that promotes their service by using a celebrity name. In my case, I ONLY and mainly chose Amuse.io as a distributor because of Will.I.Am (American rapper and singer-songwriter), who was listed as one of the shareholders! I respect him as an artist and I thought he is trustworthy! I don’t know if he is or ever was an Amuse shareholder. Indie artists don’t fall for celebrity names!

Indie Artists, your voice matter now more than ever!

Remember, ONLY YOU are the copyright holder of your work! Don’t allow distributors and music stores to misuse their “power” and “punish” you and take advantage of your dependency and helplessness. With AI activities with your music, you can easily become a target like me!

Sign, share and support this important online petition to end this unlawful and disrespectful treatment and discrimination with indie artists!

Music lovers, please use your voice and support Indie artists!

Please sign and support this online petition. We need your help to be able to continue our journey as indie artists!

Follow me on Instagram@lilyamismusic for more!

Tell me, do these beautiful tracks need fake streamings?