AIM removes five million links to piracy sites in just four months with MUSO

Independent artists able to enforce copyright through anti-piracy portal

The Association of Independent Music (AIM) - an organisation that represents the interests of more than 800 independent music companies in the UK - has announced that its members have removed over five million links to piracy sites through its partnership with content protection and piracy data specialist MUSO, since the launch of the initiative in April this year.

The MUSO Protect anti-piracy platform includes content protection, automatic takedowns to remove infringing files and links and an online dashboard that allows content owners to see all removals. AIM label members have free access to the MUSO Protect platform as a benefit of their membership of AIM, empowering them to have far more control over where their content appears online. Labels including Beggars Banquet, WARP, Ninja Tune, Cooking Vinyl and many others have used the portal so far, achieving over 5 million removals to date.

James Marrs, Digital Delivery and Data Coordinator, WARP Records said:
“MUSO has proven to be an effective and simple tool to use. We have been impressed with the results, having recorded over 250,000 takedowns in two months. Their staff are always very responsive and helpful - which counts for a lot!”

Digital piracy remains a significant issue for the music industry. In fact, MUSO’s 2017 global piracy report recorded a surge in music piracy in 2017, with 73.9 billion visits to music piracy websites – a 14.7% increase from 2016. The impact on independent music businesses can be particularly significant, without a consistent mechanism to remove unlicensed content from the internet. With MUSO, AIM has provided independent labels with a means for recourse.

Gee Davy, AIM’s Head of Legal & Business Affairs said:
“AIM’s partnership with MUSO began in May this year, and to see 5 million takedowns achieved already reflects the speed and efficiency with which MUSO has covered the catalogues across the independent music community. Our members report that they are delighted with the service, which not only protects their releases from online piracy, but creates a visual dashboard to track piracy and protection activity in real time.

“We look forward to continuing our collaboration with MUSO, which has been a great success to date, providing clear and tangible benefits to our membership.”

Russel Coultart, Global Head of Music at MUSO said:
“Digital piracy and unlicensed content is a major issue for musicians and their labels - it subtracts from revenues, eats into margins, and takes away control from the artist. While piracy is detrimental to all musicians, it’s particularly tough on independent artists, leading to decreased productivity and ultimately less music being produced. We’re delighted with the progress AIM has made with our technology in giving labels and artists more control over their content.”