Did I Totally F__K Myself?

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

This channel is not over or closed. I know some of you may think that from what IK say in this video but not is not what I'm doing. Yes. I'm dealing with some issues concerning KZbin and Tunecore which will , for the time being, keep me from making certain videos, but I've got plenty of more video themes and ideas and the only thing that is going to stop me is if I drop dead. So, expect to see me around here for a while. Thanks you everyone who has supported this channel and my livestreams!

[@lahattec]

Hi Billy. I don't see a link to the list of distributors that you mentioned. Good luck with your issues on this. Thanks!

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

​@@lahattec ahh... sorry. Here it is: aristake.com/digital-distribution-comparison/

[@jd19877]

I tried my method to find workers emails and think i got CEO email address. If you could message me or email me, ill pass it on to you.

[@Stonechild_Soul]

Maybe Top Music Attorney can help you out. She knows tunecore and all that pretty well. And she is also an artist. Maybe worth a try?

[@kevinlentz7604]

@@FreakingOutWithBillyHume atta Boy Billy Me Too

[@angermanagementstudios]

It’s almost like the entire music industry exists to rip off the people creating the music…

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

I think that's pretty spot on.

[@FurtiveSkeptical]

The more things change... The more they stay the same.😢

[@ThatBonsaipanda]

Hey you said the quiet part out loud

[@RealHomeRecording]

Gotta have a business mindset along with that musical talent. That's what Taylor Swift did.

[@whitex4652]

Of course. That's the nature of capitalism. Anyone thought otherwise?

[@JustinAlec90]

It’s important for all of us to drill down into the swamp so we don’t literally f$&k ourselves. Thanks for the heads up Billy! ❤👊🏻

[@steevidrums]

This video needs to be shared. Call on your buddy Rick, maybe he can help?

[@brianelkins8604]

We will resubscribe.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thank you!

[@mosiextremlity]

In february it will be one year since I switched my channel to the official artist channel and I am connected with Distrokid who shares my songs everywhere. Since I released 4 albums of music in all this time, I earned nothing 😬. Does no one listen to my music? I wouldn't say because I have over 800 subscribers on YT that I reached organically just with music without paid ads. So, since the beginning of the year, I'm shutting down Distrokid and all music will be only on KZbin and Bandcamp. The question arises whether this merging of two channels also divides subscribers who subscribed to the topic promoted by distrokid or not? I don't care about the note next to my channel anymore, nor about uploading music for streaming, because I don't see the point, just wasting time and money that I won't get back.

[@midasmusicco.5192]

Send them a legal letter threatening a law suit. They will deal with it IMMEDIATELY

[@cjay2]

No they won't. Ask Louis Rossmann.

[@anreoil]

You wish. They will just start ignoring you. Avoid threatening them with a lawsuit unless you are prepared to follow through on the threat. And in this case, just spend some money to send them an actual letter from actual lawyers.

[@i-klaus]

They are modern-day highwaymen.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Exactly!

[@HistheoryMusic]

Oh my goodness I'm sorry you're facing all of this, customer service all around is usually daunting and frustrating... I am also with TuneCore and I merged my channel a couple months ago. Now is it because I have not a lot of subs or content that was only music related, but I didn't face any issue so far. I'm not a big help then for you there but I truly hope and wish you'll get around it and find a way to keep shining with your channel! 💪🧡💪

[@scottyedmonston]

unreachable faceless execrable tunecore. I feel your pain Billy Hume

[@novelresponse]

Thanks Billy for the heads up

[@drumsmut]

sorry to hear about the trouble you’re dealing with, but thank you for still posting a great and informative video!!!

[@TotallyLikeCosmic]

Thanks Billy. Please do keep going... love your videos: the energy, knowledge, real world experience, and delivered with such authenticity. Thank you. :)

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

I appreciate that!!

[@vigilant545]

I think it is wise to use KZbin to grow an audience and then having your own site to offer these gems outside of KZbin without mixing anything up. Thanks for the video since I have to get around my head on these topics too!

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

While I do want to earn money from KZbin I have come to the same conclusion. I need to build my audience on non-algorithmic platforms. Thanks.

[@younglife88]

feel for you Billy! I hope you can resolve this soon. Creativity being stifled by paperwork. So disappointing.

[@CreativeSauce]

Man, I'm sorry to hear you're going through this. This stuff scares me in terms of my own channel! Recently started watching you - enjoying your style :)

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thanks so much!!

[@sinascerba3007]

OMG!!! that's horrible. Thank you for shariing this. Nightmare. I hope you get it sorted. You are so great to watch!! Bummed you are dealing with that!

[@cmdess]

Thank you for sharing this. I have about 40 albums I released myself and it's always tempting to try to sort new revenue ideas by clicking on anything and everything to opt in. For me the best way to earn music in the industry will remain the day job. Lol.

[@skratchtat]

Billy,I'm so sorry this BS is happening to you! Sounds like everything that's wrong with social media and the music industry. May God grant you some peace ✌️ 🙏 ✨️

[@EytanKoch]

Damn. That really sucks. Hope you get all this worked out! As always, thanks for the great videos!

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thank you!

[@tylerwinter512]

I’ve tried to make videos about my own music and they always get strikes because of the copyright. I wouldn’t care because I’m not monetized on KZbin but my gut tells me that a copyright strike will affect the algorithmic ranking of my video. Social media in general is super annoying especially with this copyright stuff. Loving your videos btw Billy! I’m new to your channel and glad I found ya! Will subscribe to any other channels in a heart beat.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thank you!!

[@champnessjack1154]

I ditched TuneCore in part because of lack of customer support, and went to Landr instead. (I also tried CD Baby for a while). For me the quandary is this: in any of these distribution services, you have to distribute to KZbin to get the benefit of Music ID (so KZbin can stop others from stealing your stuff). But that means that the distribution service puts your music on the channel that they create for you (Artist Topic). I don't mind the royalties going there (Landr has a deal where 100% of the earnings goes to the artist), but I don't like the fact that if I make a music video, people may wind up being directed to the lame Topics video (which is just an image), instead of to my channel. So I wish that I could get Music ID protection another way, and not have Landr distribute to KZbin. I hope your Topic tangle gets resolved soon!

[@kitcatmama]

Actually Landr distribution is on our short list.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Well that's interesting. I was under the impression that the Distributor generates the Content ID anyway even if I don't distribute to KZbin. Still learning about this...

[@MichaelOrtega]

You don’t need your distributor to have Content ID. I use CDbaby but I have content ID turned off there and On from a 3rd-party company i work with. Btw, CDbaby takes 30% of your royalties on KZbin and avoid all that by not doing it with them. If you are curious about what company I use, it’s Studio71 and they are always one phone call away from answering all my questions unlike the slow emails from distributors

[@JoyThiefTheBand]

​@@FreakingOutWithBillyHume TIL, too :/

[@jerrywemhoff]

If you don't link your channels people will still be directed to your main channel. The drawback is a split in subscribers between your music and your videos, which is why the option to link them exists in the first place.

[@StargirlMusicChannel]

WOW...thanks so much for sharing your nightmare-story with us, Billy! I will definitely NEVER sign up with TuneCore...ever!!! 💗💗💗

[@TheWriter86]

Man, I’m glad that now my channels didn’t merge when I signed up to distrokid a month and a half ago. Thanks for another great video!!

[@BillLambert]

Copyright/Media ID on YT is such a convoluted mess... but if you start a new channel, let us know. Your channel is about YOU and that's why we're all here. We will re-sub!

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thanks so much! Going to stick it out for now.

[@HussainAbdi_]

this is bullshit, sorry you're going through it - i hope someone has a solution. thank you very much for warning us!!

[@chriscancookup]

I just did this and all my stuff was merged properly. Everything was handled through tunecore. I hope you get this resolved

[@terroreichofficial]

Ah, this is great to know, thank you so much for this information !

[@SOCIETYSOUNDPOPCAST]

This intro is insane ! From the start

[@mikemehsikomer7954]

I don't have any solutions but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn express last night.

[@rguitar78]

Ricky B made all of these same griefs, even going to congress about it. YT is doing us all a great disservice.

[@varispekka]

I really hope they can solve this for you!!

[@snackmsc]

Our dear friend, i had some issues with tunecore too, (them or AI deciding i used loops?!) it almost sucked my pleasure out of making little funny musics. (i couldn't imagine there was really no-one there, after their follow up questions about how the artist support worked out!!??) but anyway, whatever happens, count on your followers, the real ones, we'll stay with you, and we'll find you, even when you drop dead, when you Lazarus-up after this nonsense quarrel with the FastTypes. I don't have to tell you to stay unique, i'll be on my isle. See you later.

[@TonySmith79]

heard tunecore was terrible we shouldn't need a digital distributor in the first place to upload to streaming services.

[@josiahdavid-go8kv]

So what alternative would you suggest. no joke, i am open to your opinions long as their specific & to-the-point.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

I was asking during my livestream today if it was possible to get on the bigger platforms without going through the middle man. Would love to know.

[@genuinefreewilly5706]

@@josiahdavid-go8kv I have more success giving music away under Commons licenses I define . At least it gets listened to and placed fairly often. Freemusicarchive is busier than I imagined. There are a few other ones The free plan on Routenote is fine for the likes of me right now. I uncheck the contentID box. Everyone's goals are different and mileage will vary

[@TinyTonyGOD]

@@FreakingOutWithBillyHume a very valid question

[@TonySmith79]

@@josiahdavid-go8kv what do you mean? you could upload to spotify without a distributor before the record labels made them use one. Spotify owned a part of Distro Kid at one point and it was gate kept from there. KZbin is a platform and online distributor all in one without a middle man.

[@josemelrose5465]

I hate this kind of shit. Distrokid also has effed up buttons you can’t undo. Drives me crazy

[@Ni7ram]

good to know, thank you

[@KyleWolf-do2lm]

one option is to not claim any of your music on youtube on your distributor, that solves part of the problem, but you miss some money. the second part is to cover the hit song and purchase a cover license. everything is so automated though it's hit or miss

[@laserfloyd]

The system is broken. It makes KZbin and others some serious bank, so they have no desire to fix it. Very sad and it hurts the artists, the very people who make it possible for them to make said bank. Ugh...

[@electronicmusicartcollective]

first, yeah...thanx for the very good videos about our quality of music

[@chrisbowman574]

Very similar to Spotify. They made a topic you tube on our first release Arms of a Mistake by Static Affliction. We clicked merge artist channel and 2 weeks later it merged. During the time it took to merge we had no control over our you tube topic that they made. Also they put ads on it and it seems as though DistroKid’s owns the ad revenue for the song we released. Until it’s merged.

[@dandjurdjevicplus1]

Staying well away from Tunecore.

[@kevinlentz7604]

Billy love your work been signing since 1964 great advice ,keep up the great work stil rocking at 68❤

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@Fl4ppers]

I've the same situation with Distrokid. No support. The chatbot is irrelevant. You enter your email and nothing. All they care about is the money they screw out of you

[@b4rtir4]

They sell the idea of merging channels(and add that music note symbol next to the name) so that their algorithm can deliver the music content to more appropriate audiences connecting them with hashtags and peoples profile data or whatever instead of sending it to random people from a wide list of interests. However I couldn’t merge mine at all. It says I have to have at least a couple tracks released in the platforms which I do . Contacted them they told me to try again now it’s saying I don’t have the minimum number of subs to merge but I’ve seen official channels with similar amounts..it’s really about putting on a scale a supposedly better performance of algorithms versus risking strikes on other types of videos you might post… I unfortunately will never know… the promise of self distribution through these platforms being a way of keeping yourself independent has always been a lie.

[@urbanmoving.systems]

They sound like a modern music equivalent of Machinima or one of those predatory companies from back in the day. Brutal. Isn't that something that you have to pay them for them to screw you over with zero accountability on their end. It reminds me of Welcome to Gameshop. Musicians have to go to them to put their stuff up on streaming platforms or else they have to do it themselves, or not at all. Podawful mentioned.

[@MasaTheSlayer]

This should not be this hard and difficult.

[@DoNNYT26]

Top music Attorney is a KZbin channel that might be able to help

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Just found her.

[@mortenkalland]

I use DistroKid, but I dont know how. hehe - I used Google music, but that was taken down by Google. I improvise in Studio One and Bitwig, and I miss having a playroom for real drums and loud singing. Shit.

[@TronkyWonk]

All us creators need to start working our way to self-hosted and Direct to Consumer solutions. The only thing I’ve had trouble figuring out with that is discovery. Maybe thats where federation comes into play.

[@marioguadron1529]

Your experience did not go in vain. This will save many musical artists who are working on building their KZbin channel and not merge those artists topic channels. I suggest you create your own thumbnails and your own music videos with just the cover art and your song and upload them yourself and build your own channel.

[@gisfortheguitar]

Very valuable info I hope it all gets worked out soon for the best!

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thanks! We'll see what happens...

[@johnskerlec9663]

Oh Man what a fucking nightmare. Seems that being independent is not really being independent when the gate keepers have the control given to them by us the artists.

[@CrankyOldNerd]

from what I understand from others, the stats going nuts is an artifact of the merge, and eventually they fix it. trying to remember which artist recently experienced this and talked about it in the last month.

[@agsmith001]

Kafka nailed it!

[@sinesk.999]

He is in the trial

[@maxmixproductions]

Seems we’ve become slaves to zero customer service and the secret non-transparent algorithms that comes with the platforms that promise us riches.

[@PhilAndersonOutside]

Here’s my suggestion. Actually, this is what I am considering: going to law school. Not joking.

[@polygonalmasonary]

Lesson, STOP putting your own work on platforms where you have absolutely no control over the work. KZbin sucks anyway when it comes to music 🙄🙄🙄🙏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧♥️

[@McMieke]

How frustrating

[@rogercraig761]

Sixteen years since I suggested the musicians build their own Platform where THEY control the music business. Had support from many friends in the Beatles camp plus the largest Union for musicians, the AFM. But nobody supported our efforts and now they are all complaining. We still need a new Platform owned and operated by the musicians. But the fans need to start paying for music again otherwise the business is finished

[@100_PERCENT_ROEMER]

This is precisely why I only make music for fish exclusively.

[@paulmint1775]

Im hooked :)

[@100_PERCENT_ROEMER]

@@paulmint1775 Nobody makes music for fish. It's a completely untapped market.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Y'all are funny 😂😂😂

[@EmperorKamikaze]

Tunacore

[@1KoeiKan]

Already been done. Remember Dethwater?

[@kaszaniarz]

Those companies only want money, so why they just dont phone support, where it cost like 300$ per hour. They created such a mess, that phone will be ringing non stop and they would be bilionaries in few months

[@FronbondiSkegs]

Sounds like a nightmare - bugger that

[@ishortiz9988]

Man! That sucks.

[@alienzardsketter.9076]

Ask Rick Beto ,,,he may know something about it ,,,Just my opinion ,,,, your channel is great ,,, it should stay up without any problems ,...Keep your friends close and your emitys even closer.....

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thanks!

[@purpmanelaflare5438]

8:36 That Sucks

[@MinusMedley]

Copyright is setup to strictly control revenue, to them it doesn't matter if you can prove ownership, no profit without their "cut".

[@TheDistortionPrinciple]

I did it with a song of mine once and filed a dispute saying i was the writer and recording artist for the music. The reversed the claim against me

[@isoufacker]

lost in the garden of eden

[@alanbutterworth4219]

I think the only way forward for everybody, is to create their own websites and use KZbin as the site for advertising your trailers.

[@tracy3975]

I’m really sorry, this shouldn’t be so complex but I’ll resubscribe if you decide to start a new channel!

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thanks. Sticking with here for now.

[@avalinah]

We will find and resub

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thank you! I'm going to stick it out here for now.

[@richa8937]

I'm sure there must be an special license to get to play other artist's songs, the equivalent to playing songs in your bar or whatever, where you pay upfront to the royalty companies and labels and you get a public performance license, I know there must be, because there are djs , clubs, etc that can upload whole sets and nothing gets cutout or muted or anything like that. Problem is I don't know what channels you have to go trough to get something like that, because yeah.. it seems like if youtube has 2 offices, one for the lone content creators, and other for the big companies.

[@GoneButNotGone]

Suggestion: one triple bourbon sour and a dart board with the Tunecore logo in the centre.

[@bc454irocz89]

damn i just discovered your channel and its over

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

No, it's not over. Just some technical setbacks and certain videos I can't make till I ruffle the right feathers.

[@DylanPwnt]

I'm actually freaking out with Billy Hume. KZbin is a monster. Sorry.

[@LeanBearMusic]

Here is my suggestion. This world is hopelessly corrupt. Don't sacrifice your music on its unholy altar. You probably have a mailing list. Use that for your distribution, and be happy if even a few dozen or hundred souls hear and appreciate what you have made. That is more recognition than the vast majority of us will ever get, even if we feed the industry monster in our vain desire to be heard by people we will probably never meet.

[@myoldreteacher]

Been on KZbin since 2006. This is nothing new. Lots of creators went through a similar thing with Maker Studios. You think you’re doing something for the benefit of your channel and it turns out you’re not. You lose control and a portion of your revenue stream for very little return. From my experience, it is better to stay in control of as much as you can when it comes to your KZbin channel.

[@danielbanic3738]

Been there and done that , had youtube channel with 500k subscribers and over 80 million views of over 800 oldies music videos I remeastered and was the biggest thing on youtube and made a lot of money for the record companies and it was just a hobby with me so I did'nt care if I did'nt make money. I always dealt with copyright strikes and they were'nt such a problem since they happend so infrequesnty and woul get taken away after a month or so but then one music company gave me around 4 in one week and there was no time to recover and the channel was taken down. But to talk about your solution since I have my own music distributed on streams site through distrokid is just start from scratch. Take down and cancel your account with tunecore and just start over with distrokid and make sure you don;t let them monetize a youtube ID for you music. Leave youtube for free promotion and and ss for spotify and other music sites for paid streams and monitization. It's that simple.

[@jeffbridges6110]

I couldn't deal with the BS of being a "KZbinr".

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

I could hardly deal with the BS of the old school music industry. There has always been BS with putting out art.

[@cjay2]

Dude, contact Rick Beato and ask him what he does to clear interviews and songs.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

I'm pretty sure that when you have millions of subscribers you can get the support.

[@elipacheco532]

I’d recommend making a new youtube channel as an extension of this one. Like Rick Beato 2. It’s up to you though.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Been totally think the same thing.

[@saraloking5993]

KZbin BADLY NEEDS COMPETITION. And, who would know about that Topic thing? It's not like you've got a crystal ball. I always assumed Topic channels were made by fans of an artist, therefore it was not their 'official' KZbin. I don't even know if you could have researched it, since these companies seem to deliberately make everything opaque, and post incomplete or incorrect information (such as all those useless phone numbers that your wife found, and the customer service reps who contradicted each other).

[@Dionyson678]

There are competitors, but the only way to make it work is to lean into a niche that KZbin refuses to touch. The most obvious example are x-rated adult sites and sites who cater to politically charged content (Rumble's business model). Getting an alternative platform off the ground is hard enough due to the power of network effects, but video and live streaming is so costly you either need to be x-rated or have a powerful group with an agenda willing to eat the costs, like Rumble and Kick.

[@callingallkings163]

Move your content over to Rumble. Keep the KZbin setup because you already have tinkered with this. Build your KZbin channel as you were already doing and don't be afraid to add the content people want to watch. If you set up a Patreon or some other form of donation platform then people will support your channel if they like what you are doing. With 32 k subs it seems like some people are liking what you are doing. IF this is a large enough deal for you then reach out to a lawyer and ask them to review this mess and obtain their opinions from a legal standpoint and don't listen to KZbin lawyers. KZbin will treat 2 people completely different who has what looks to be very similar situations. You would think that there's some policy/protocol for the platform but it's more like a case-by-case thing. Good Luch Billy.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thanks. Already got Patreon going and build up on other platforms as well.

[@ChainsawCoffee]

So if you let your subscription lapse, then TuneCore will remove the "official" channel? If it was me, I would do it, and just take the subscription hit. Then I would create a second channel for only music.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

I don't want to lose 22,000 Subs. There may be a silver lining to this with the Artist Channel and this one being combined. My main issue is having to stick with Tunecore.

[@mikel917]

I’m looking forward to hearing your music! Also I hope you get all that straightened out soon 😊

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thanks so much! I have another video coming out soon where I'll be creating new samples and sounds for one of my songs.

[@Hysteric_Subjects]

Time to switch to DistroKid? lol sorry this happened to you, brotha

[@stestetsonmusic]

Tune core will collect your royalties and ur content id will be collected by them. So u will still get the money dude Ditto allows u to connect the two channels. Its all fine bro we had same issue and all worked out fine

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

They will take a cut of my own songs in my own videos. Seems pointless. The main issue here is ZERO customer support and the lack of control over my own YT channel. I'll check out Ditto.

[@MVVblog]

You may not know but youtube from time to time, unsubscribes some of your subscribers automatically for unknown reasons. KZbin always adds insult to injury, and in fact I was no longer subscribed to your channel. I have re-subscribed.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Oh damn... I had that happen on Instagram. Lost 3k followers in 2 months.

[@yiqwaba3833]

I would ask the guy who they act like owns all the rights to dispute the issues and for him to write under a post on your channel please don't strike this channel. Also write Tunecore how to fill out the about info into the song's to fix the issue. Hope it helps.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thanks

[@ladyshaymusic.official]

My most popular song got taken down by My distro and it was all because the meta data didn't match with my pro. (Different title, Different year, etc.) They can get pretty stingy about the Meta Data.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Oh... that sucks!

[@ladyshaymusic.official]

@FreakingOutWithBillyHume yeah it does but, it happens to all of us. Even the Professionals. Lol

[@ladyshaymusic.official]

It's a great excuse to drop the Remastered Version and get my listeners engage in the new modern version of it. Silver linings are there, we just have to look for them.

[@michaelmeucci8785]

Is tune corn free for anyone creating music do I need publishing and copyright thank you

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

I don't understand your question.

[@terryhigson434]

ITS SUPPOSED TO BE ANNOYING.......

[@LizardWizard_]

Billy make them damn videos and put them on Patreon. I’ll pay for it.

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

I have a Patreon and have thought of doing more exclusive content there for this very reason.

[@mansosound]

The horror. And you are not the first. (Got stories) makes you think huh.

[@rusty6813]

Leave Tunecore: There's a Lawyer on YT that talks about, literally, your issues - Top Music Attorney

[@AlexanderXenophon]

… sigh …

[@davidvochocjr1005]

It is a good idea to not put the same music published via the distribution channel and by you independently. Sooner or later, you will put yourself into troubles, whitelisting doesn’t always work

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

The more I dig into this the more I'm confused. Still investigating...

[@midasmusicco.5192]

Just use KZbin to tell people about the content of your shows and then put them on your OWN website channel. There are companies out there that will monetise it for you.

[@kaipyroami]

All these great music channels and none of them are allowed to have music

[@leonlink]

I am new to the channel so I don't know if you have this already. But maybe creat a patron? And make the more copyrighted stuff exclusive?

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thanks. I have a Patreon and have been building that up.

[@killervacuum]

"blocked in some countries" often means only russia. make sure to look at the details

[@FreakingOutWithBillyHume]

Thanks. i'll check that out.