Previous threads for context:

Spotify issues

YouTube issues

Thanks for hanging in there and going through this journey with me for the past month or so.

I have some good news on the Spotify and YouTube front.

YouTube: I reached out to Muserk Rights Management directly and let them know that someone used their platform to file a fraudulent claim against me. They were very helpful, compliant, and cheerful in assisting in removing the fraudulent claim.

Spotify: After a ton of back and forth between Spotify and CD Baby, I realized that neither one would take responsibility in helping me directly. So I decided to resubmit my music for distribution on Spotify through my distributor. This, of course, involved me paying my distributor again to create a new release of the existing album Darkmatter. While I was at it, I decided to release Isolation as a single in order to hopefully reduce the damage zone if something like this were to happen again in the future.

After about a week of waiting, both the single and the album are now available once again on Spotify.

Thanks again to all who have shown support and solidarity. It means the world to me. I am relieved to have this stressful situation resolved going forward. To be honest, I expected so much more from Spotify and from my distributor, CD Baby. I have heard that other distributors are just as bad. As a small ,independent artist, it's a necessary evil that I have to live with.

Anyway, with these situations resolved, I can finally move forward. As I mentioned in an interview earlier this year, I do have a lot of desire to release a new single sometime this year. I haven't been able to put the time, effort, thought, and care into it that I would like in order to feel that I am producing a polished end result. With these issues resolved, hopefully I'll be able to sink a little bit of time and effort into the track I'm working on.

Finally, I do want to engage more with the community. I would like to post more regularly - maybe once per month or something like that. But I also want to have something meaningful to post about. So hopefully I'll be able to start making progress on the track again.

Anyway, thanks again for the support and understanding during the false copyright claims situation I've been going through this past month. Y'all are the best!

NightHawk22

No resolution on the Spotify front yet. Both CD Baby and Spotify deflect responsibility to each other.

And in the meantime, I just received a new email from CD Baby:

“Hi there,

This is the CD Baby Pro Publishing team, and we administer the use of your Pro Publishing compositions in YouTube’s Content ID system.

We received notice that the following compositions have gone into administrative conflict with Muserk Rights Management:

Muserk Rights Management is claiming 100% of “Isolation” on behalf of RUKA, SAKITO.

Please respond within 10 business days by 9/20/2024 to confirm who should be administering the use of these compositions on YouTube.

If we have not heard from you within 10 business days regarding these conflicts, CD Baby may be forced to release our claim to these compositions on YouTube.

Please keep in mind that compositions(s) in conflict cannot be monetized on YouTube until the conflict is resolved. Additionally, if the conflict exists in YouTube's Content ID system, the works may be in conflict at collection societies as well, which means you may miss out on royalties from other sources until the conflict is resolved.”

So it seems that more people are trying to steal my music to try to take credit and make money off of this music that I created almost two decades ago. It’s simply infuriating. I am starting to lose my faith in humanity.

Original post

Update: I just heard back from Spotify. They said that they have confirmed that the claimant is not responding. They told me that my distributor can get in contact with Spotify's content team directly to get this resolved. So I will be forwarding their message along to my distributor. Hopefully things will move along quickly, and Darkmatter will be available again soon.

Thank you for all of your words of support! I appreciate you all!

Hey friends,

I’ve been dealing with a frustrating situation over the past week. Someone has submitted a false claim to Spotify that I violated their intellectual property rights with my album Darkmatter and specifically the song Isolation.

I noticed when my streaming stats started dropping on Spotify. On that note, over 75% of listens seem to be coming from Isolation 😅. I get it - it’s good - but I’ve got other songs as well, haha. I guess you’ll have to listen to those while I work on restoring Darkmatter to Spotify.

Anyway, I started by initiating a support case with my aggregator / distributor. They forwarded me an email they had received from Spotify with an intellectual properties claim and told me I needed to get in contact with the claimant and ask them to retract their claim, then resolve it directly with Spotify.

I reached out to the claimant, and they never responded. I suspect they provided a fake email address when they submitted their claim to Spotify. I mean, @legislator.com is not a real email domain, right? Seems pretty sus to me.

So then I started a support chat with Spotify. They told me to resolve the issue with my distributor. Since then, I e been running back and forth between my distributor and Spotify, and neither of them are taking ownership.

I just got off of another support chat with Spotify this morning. I told them my distributor is not helping and that Spotify needs to do something to resolve the situation. They told me they’d redirect the case to their escalation team and that I’ll hear from them in a couple of days.

Simultaneously, I discovered that another artist on Spotify has uploaded an identical copy of Isolation and is profiting from it while it’s currently unavailable on my Spotify profile. I have submitted an intellectual property claim against them, and it has been taken down while they review the case.

This whole situation has been frustrating. Thanks for your support during this time. I’m working to get it resolved, so hang in there and be patient, and I am hopeful that I can restore my album to Spotify. If it comes down to it, I’ll get legal help, but I’d prefer not to spend that kind of 💸 if I can resolve it on my own. Wish me luck!

NightHawk22

P.S. Please only trust profile links listed on my Newgrounds profile (Spotify, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, etc.). Let me know if you have any questions about any of my profiles.

Here is my official Reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/u/NightHawk22Official/s/yq09tRM8Al

I likely won’t use it a ton, but someone was asking me to verify ownership of the account.

As promised, here is the interview! Thanks, Mindcap, for being a true gentleman and conducting such a fun, interesting interview and for organizing this and putting it together. Hope you all enjoy!

https://youtu.be/CCdAb_gxooU?feature=shared

Update

Hey folks! It's been around 12 years since my last post on NewGrounds, so I'm not sure who's still checking my artist page, but yes, I am still alive! Thanks to all who have reached out expressing concern, expressed interest in my life and my music, left comments, and sent DMs. My fans were half the reason I made as much music as I did back in the day.

After a long hiatus, some of you may have noticed an increase in my activity both here and in YouTube. I don't have time to respond to all comments and DMs, so sorry in advance if I left you hanging. Life has been busy these past 12 years, and I have often felt the desire to return to making techno music again, but up until now, I haven't been able to make the time to do it.

I have responded to several NG and YouTube comments expressing my intention to come produce one or two songs this year. I have a couple of ideas I've been slowly working on. I can't promise when I'll be able to finish them, but I would really love to release them sometime this year. In spite of my inactivity here, music has continued to be a huge part of my life over the past 12 years, and I would love to be able to add back this facet of my musical life.

Announcement

#1

I'm assuming most people checking out my page these days are familiar with MindCap, LIMBO, or at least Geometry Dash. If that doesn't mean anything to you, just look up "LIMBO MindCap" on YouTube, and you'll get the gist of it.

Anyway, MindCap and I happened to bump into each other on YouTube, and we got in contact with each other. It turns out there is a lot of interest in the Geometry Dash community in having an interview with me. So this post is also to let you know that I'll be connecting with MindCap for an interview sometime in the near future.

Here's MindCap's post on the topic, in case you'd like to follow along there. When we have more information, I will also post it here.

I'm looking forward to connecting with the community in a way that I never imagined when I made my music as a teenager.

#2

I've spent a little time working on a website for my music. It's not done yet and there's nothing to see yet, but I will post here when I've launched it. I've been thinking about getting a merch page together as well, in case there is any interest among the community. At the very least, I'd love to have an official NightHawk22 shirt, if only for myself!

That's all!

Thanks for sticking with me until the end!

I'm excited about what the future holds.

Leave a comment if you'd like!

NightHawk22

Well, I just posted my second preview on Youtube. Check it out if you want to see more-or-less what my next songs will be like. Follow the link to the second video preview. And subscribe to my channel!

~NightHawk22

Hey fans, I am starting to put some previews of my current projects on Youtube. This is for better publicity. I hope to attract a larger fan-base. I also have plans for putting some of my music on iTunes and a few other music stores. This would greatly help my music become self-sustainable.

Anyways, check out my latest upload - NightHawk22 - Exclusive Preview 1

Thanks,

NightHawk22

Guess what, guys? I'm back from serving as a missionary in Brazil. It's been 2 years since I've used a computer, and to tell you the truth, I don't even have my own. I'm borrowing a laptop from somebody. But I will buy one real soon, and then I will get back to making music. It may be slow at first, but I will try to get back in it a little. Thanks for all the listens and downloads!

NightHawk22