In a stunning flip of occasions, Swedish musician Ola Englund, recognized for his solo paintings and his contributions to steel band The Haunted, just lately came upon his unique tune being republished and monetized beneath any individual else’s identify. The infringing artist, WYBIE, has been importing Englund’s songs—and probably different artists’ tune—on main streaming platforms, falsely claiming them as their very own. This unauthorized free up affected Englund’s unique monitor Cringy AF in addition to Time Will No longer Heal, a music he wrote with The Haunted.
Englund’s first trace of bother got here when he logged into his YouTube account and located a copyright declare on his video titled This Is Gonna Pi$$ A Lot Of Folks Off. The video featured Cringy AF, however the declare said that the tune belonged to WYBIE, beneath the name 律动乐章(纯音乐). The “content material house owners” indexed have been [Merlin] EWway Tune and Tencent Tune Leisure Crew—a false attribution, because the music used to be 100% Englund’s paintings. This preliminary infringement precipitated a long, irritating fight with WYBIE and their vendors, who additionally uploaded different tune beneath false claims. A few of these tracks may had been AI-generated variations of different artists’ paintings, which poses a fair larger drawback for creatives within the virtual age.
Englund briefly discovered the magnitude of the problem, noting that WYBIE wasn’t simplest claiming his tune. The individual or entity in the back of WYBIE had allegedly uploaded folks’s tune as neatly, focused on unsuspecting artists throughout platforms and probably monetizing stolen tune.
With advert income at stake, Englund filed a dispute with YouTube. The platform in the long run sided with him, liberating the copyright declare on his video. This victory allowed him to reclaim keep watch over over his YouTube profits from Cringy AF. Whilst he controlled to offer protection to his rights on YouTube, the battle wasn’t over. WYBIE’s tune—together with tracks that reflected Englund’s—remained to be had on Spotify and different main streaming services and products.
In reaction, Englund took additional motion. He filed a dispute with Spotify, and, fortunately, the platform acted rapidly. The songs in query have been blocked on WYBIE’s album, graying them out to stop additional monetization. He additionally reached out to Century Media, the document label related to The Haunted, to take away Time Will No longer Heal from WYBIE’s discography.
In spite of the preliminary successes on YouTube and Spotify, Englund confronted a brand new problem: getting his tune got rid of from Eway Tune, a Chinese language publishing corporate attached to Tencent. After submitting a proper dispute thru their on-line portal, he won no reaction, leaving his tune—and probably that of different artists—prone at the platform.
Whilst he stays hopeful about protecting his tune safe, he expressed frustration over the time-consuming procedure, emphasizing that point spent addressing those problems can have been used to create new tune. “For an artist, I imply, that is like the very last thing we now have left. It’s now not making us some huge cash, but it surely’s simply… it sucks, guy,” Englund shared, losing mild at the emotional toll of shielding ingenious paintings in a extremely available, but prone virtual panorama.
In his video updates, Englund requested his lovers and fellow artists for help. He inspired audience to lend a hand determine different stolen songs on WYBIE’s album, urging them to inform the unique artists. With copyright infringement turning into extra commonplace, Englund wired the significance of consciousness and motion throughout the tune neighborhood, as all these problems are simplest more likely to develop.
Take a look at the entire video right here:
To reinforce artists like Englund, he urged lovers to buy products, attend are living displays, and circulate tune from verified profiles to verify profits cross to the rightful creators. Englund additionally launched a brand new tune video, Sport Over, inviting his lovers to look at it on YouTube so that you could reinforce him immediately.
Take a look at the brand new music and video right here:
Ola Englund’s revel in serves as a stark reminder of the demanding situations going through fashionable artists. With AI-generated tune, larger accessibility to tune distribution, and a loss of duty on positive platforms, protective highbrow assets is extra essential—and complicated—than ever. For artists, this can be a fight now not just for truthful reimbursement however for the popularity and coverage in their ingenious paintings. As Englund’s tale demonstrates, staying knowledgeable, vigilant, and proactive is very important for any musician in as of late’s virtual tune panorama.
Catch Ola Englund at the Get away The Web Excursion 2025!!
ESCAPE THE INTERNET TOUR 2025
Tickets: https://bit.ly/3WBqCLE
10.01. 🇨🇿 Prague Meet Manufacturing facility
11.01. 🇵🇱 Warsaw Niebo
12.01. 🇩🇪 Berlin Frannz Membership
15.01. 🇫🇮 Helsinki Tavastia
17.01. 🇸🇪 Stockholm Klubben Fryshuset
18.01. 🇧🇻 Oslo John Dee
19.01. 🇩🇰 Copenhagen Pumpehuset
21.01. 🇩🇪 Hamburg Gruenspan
22.01. 🇩🇪 Cologne Membership Volta
23.01. 🇩🇪 Aschaffenburg Colos-Saal
24.01. 🇳🇱 Utrecht Tivoli-Pandora
25.01. 🇬🇧 Birmingham 02 Academy 2
26.01. 🇬🇧 London 02 Academy Islington
28.01. 🇨🇵 Paris Maroquinerie
29.01. 🇨🇭 Zurich Dynamo
30.01. 🇮🇹 Milan Santeria Toscana 31
31.01. 🇩🇪 Munich Ampere
01.02. 🇦🇹 Vienna Szene Wien
Practice the artist at those hyperlinks:
https://www.olaenglund.com
https://www.youtube.com/olaenglund
https://www.instagram.com/olaenglund
https://www.fb.com/olaenglund
