A website called Access times the sale of music-related NFTs has been temporarily closed after artists allege it appropriated their work without permission, Rolling Stone reported. Recently released social media outrage posts from artists including Jack Antonoff, Eve 6 and Sadie Dupuis. “Any [Bleachers] NFT is fake,” Jack Antonoff tweeted. I don’t believe in NFT so anything you see related to me is not real. “
The HitPiece website appears to be built on top of Spotify’s API. Before it closed, it appeared to be offering NFT songs and albums from the likes of John Lennon and BTS, including photos and album artwork, Internet Archives.
hey you stupid @joinhitpiece we don’t have any deal with you or any NFT site and it’s definitely like an ongoing auction for a quick ortiz song
hope people report this spam to [email protected] as some have suggested @Hold on dad https://t.co/VFg4gq5wVK
– quick ortiz sad13 Sadie Dupuis haunted guy (@ sad13) February 1, 2022
However, like many other NFT business models, it is unclear exactly what HitPiece is selling. “This particular bigotry doesn’t really affect the artists in that HitPiece doesn’t even sell files of the songs – it’s just a general idea of them being bought and sold,” said Infant Island guitarist and student. graduate student Alex Rudenshiold says Rolling Stone. “It’s still piracy. It’s reproducing the metadata (art, songs and album names, etc.) for money without permission.”
HitPiece, founded by former indie label owner Rory Felton, released a statement. “Clearly we’ve hit the mark and are eager to create the ideal experience for music fans,” it said on Twitter. “It should be made clear that artists are paid when digital goods are sold on Hitpiece.” We are continuing to listen to all user feedback and are committed to developing products to match the needs of artists, brands and fans. ”
However, the artists cast doubt on HitPiece’s claim that they would be paid. “They steal your music, auction its NFT on their website and when they get caught they say don’t worry you ‘get paid’,” the Deerhoof team tweeted. “I understand that corporate types are simply greedy and cruel in principle but what kind of mind could even imagine that a doubletalk like this could somehow make it okay? “
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