What Happened to Artzie Music

What Happened to Artzie Music

Artzie Music was hit with multiple copyright strikes by an agency called ShoPro otherwise known as Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co., Ltd. A Japanese production company and a subsidiary of the Japanese publishing group Hitotsubashi Group. The YouTube channel received several violations at once prompting the Google-owned video platform to issue a termination date set to October 27, 2020.

Artzie Music had been a staple of the alternative electronic music scene since 2015, serving as a hub for aspiring Vaporwave and Future Funk artists. Many who were featured in Artzie Music videos went on to become more well-known and develop large followings with thousands of listeners having discovered them through the channel. Having almost achieved 400k subscribers, the channel had enjoyed a large amount of success thanks to its looping anime gif videos featuring music that could be described as “Weebtronica” or music tailored to the certain taste of anime convention fanatics and faux-otaku nerd culture among others. Artzie Music was truly something different and it gave validity and community to a style of music that would otherwise only reside on bandcamp or obscure music blogs.

The music channel had recently been scandalized by a very public and salacious break-up between the original creators causing platforms like Twitter and Reddit to react as they normally would in these instances; overly dramatic. Artzie Music seemed to have rocked the boat a little too hard with their lover’s spat and what many comment sections appear to hint at is that someone may have intentionally reported the channel to ShoPro as vengeful retaliation. If true it would mean that no YouTube channel is ever really protected unless everything on it is 100% original or licensed to you. If you step on the wrong toes you can swiftly be sacrificed to the internet gods without a second thought from YouTube. In 2020 it seems like anything can happen and Artzie going down is sad but seemed almost inevitable as it ballooned in notoriety.

Sadly, this isn’t the first instance of rampant copyright claim striking and it won’t be the last. YouTube’s copyright policies have become draconian and many what are now called Copyright Trolls can cause havoc for unsuspecting channels while YouTube only takes a passive interest in helping you out of the situation. It could be that the platform has become too big to fail, and really does not need or desire smaller creators, and especially not creators who trigger possible lawsuits for them by using copyrighted content. Even still, people upload copyrighted content constantly regardless and YouTube only steps in when a perceived severe violation occurs. In Artzie’s case, it could be the hundreds of videos of looping anime gifs that became the chum in the water. It seemed almost too easy for anyone to simply report an orgy of evidence to bored Japanese suits to get the knives sharpened.

What Artzie’s demise means for the future of similar music channels is a grim reminder that Fair Use is more of a myth than legal defense. As much as a creator feels they could qualify for the legal loophole it’s a very expensive dice to roll that could have severe repercussions, or you could just bow out which could save you legal nightmares for years to come. Whenever you reach a critical point of success on YouTube you are sure to attract criticism, jealousy, and people wanting to scrutinize everything you do. That’s the price of attaining popularity and having your name out there where anyone including big companies who own the content you are using can find and easily have you thrown outback like a bouncer by merely just winking at YouTube. YouTube’s automated bot staff are uncaring, unforgiving, and almost anti-understanding, so appealing their decision is really just begging for the mercy of a serial killer(It’s just not going to work). The bottom line for non-commercial YouTube creators in 2020 is that what you call your artistic expression is only tolerated on the platform until someone complains about it, then you’re out.

It could very well be that the way we are viewing ownership, copyright, and borrowed content is changing like many things this year. We constantly grow and so does our perspective on the things we do both online and off. As someone whose channel was also taken down for similar violations, it can be tough, but there is life after YouTube. It’s never an end to a creator’s life when their channel goes down, but at least you’re not going down with it and if you have something to offer that people want then you’ll continue to find support. Consider it a push out of the nest and into the real world where you need to adapt and develop a new part of yourself that you weren’t even aware you had. I wish the best for the creators of Artzie Music and hope they realize they have more to offer and will make it through this difficult time. Suffering, as they say, builds character. - Van

[Update 2/2021] Artzie Music seemingly returned in January of 2021 but only as an approximation of the channel by one of the two original creators - per Reddit.

Blog RSS

---

AUTHOR

Van Paugam is an Internationally-Acclaimed DJ and leading figure specializing in 70s and 80s Japanese Music, dubbed City Pop. He has organized and hosted over 100 events dedicated to the style, and actively promotes Japanese culture while on the board of the Japanese Arts Foundation of Chicago. He has been featured on CNN, NHK, and many other publications for his dedication to City Pop. Van is credited with being the first person to begin popularizing City Pop online through his mixes on YouTube in 2016, and subsequently through live events. Learn More…

You Might Also Like…

---