Artists, labels, RIAA fight HitPiece Music NFTs sold without consent
HitPiece NFT marketplace has been selling one-of-one NFTs from your favorite artists. The only problem is your favorite artist knows nothing about it.
A guest post by James Shotwell of Haulix.
NFTs have been creeping into pop culture for over a year now, promising a new future for digital art and media ownership. Several musicians have made serious cash selling non-fungible tokens, including Kings of Leon and Snoop Dogg, but the vast majority of artists have yet to enter the NFT space. At least, if you asked them, that’s what they would say.
[MORE: RIAA goes after music NFT scammers HitPiece]
Something strange happened this week. A new NFT Marketplace known as HitPiece began circulating online. The site offered one-of-one NFTs featuring various artists from every level of the industry. Big-name acts currently selling out theaters appear alongside bedroom recording artists who have never performed in front of a crowd. The common thread? None of the artists agreed to the NFTs, the site, or the price of the non-fungible token. Most knew nothing of the site whatsoever until one label, Needlejuice Records, started making a fuss on Twitter.
Tuesday afternoon, the Nashville-based Needlejuice, which represents 39 different indie bands and specializes in creating physical vinyl records, tweeted: “Neither us nor our artists have consented to @joinhitpiece selling NFTs of our music. Crypto grifters prove once again that they do not care about artists or ethics- just their dystopian end goal of turning every facet of life into a stock market pump & dump scheme.”
In light of HitPiece’s activities in the crypto market, Brandon Brown, cofounder of Needlejuice, spoke to Newsweek regarding potential actions that the company would take.
“We’ve never been in the position of having to send a cease & desist before, but now we’ve started talking to our lawyers to ask about the next steps to make sure the music that we distribute digitally is off the site,” Brown stated. “As far as a class-action lawsuit goes, it might depend on how much they’ve managed to sell; the appeal of these NFTs (to those that are into that sort of thing) would certainly be stronger for major label artists and vary wildly for independent ones, especially the internet-native artists we tend to support.”
As word of HitPiece’s illegal activities spread, an increasing number of labels and artists were surprised to find their work and likeness available for sale on the platform.
Following the outrage on social media, clever internet sleuths found that HitPiece was using Spotify’s API to create NFTs from seemingly every song in the Spotify catalog.
Artists, labels, and fans continued to share their frustrations on social media throughout Tuesday afternoon. That same evening, HitPiece made its first statement in response to the controversy. It reads, “Clearly we have struck a nerve and are very eager to create the ideal experience for music fans. To be clear, artists get paid when digital goods are sold on HitPiece. Like all beta products, we are continuing to listen to all user feedback and are committed to evolving the product to fit the needs of artists, labels, and fans alike.”
People quickly pointed out that HitPiece can’t make good on its promise to pay artists if they do not first contact artists. Other users pointed to the presence of Google Ads promoting the existence of HitPiece as proof the company was attempting to make money on music-related goods without first telling the copyright holders.
On Wednesday, February 2, the official HitPiece marketplace disappeared from the company’s public website. In its place is a message that reads, “We started the conversation, and we’re listening.”
James Shotwell is the Director of Customer Engagement at Haulix and host of the company’s podcast, Inside Music. He is also a public speaker known for promoting careers in the entertainment industry, as well as an entertainment journalist with over a decade of experience. His bylines include Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Substream Magazine, Nu Sound, and Under The Gun Review, among other popular outlets.
