Why Did SoundCloud Suspend ThisSongIsSick.com's Account?

Earlier this week, the popular Boulder based electronic and hip-hop music blog, ThisSongIsSick.com announced that Soundcloud, the audio distribution platform has temporarily suspended their account, which blog creator Nick Guarino said gets approximately 1.5 million listeners every 24 hours...

By Mary Willson

September 18, 2014

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "12017618",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17242653",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18838239",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17261320",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18838239",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17261321",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

Earlier this week, the popular Boulder based electronic and hip-hop music blog, ThisSongIsSick.com announced that Soundcloud, the audio distribution platform has temporarily suspended their account, which blog creator Nick Guarino said gets approximately 1.5 million listeners every 24 hours.

Guarino explains in a blog post that the account was deactivated because of "outstanding DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) claims," which This Song is Sick were not aware of because of a fault in the SoundCloud system.

The following was posted on their Facebook account.

Post by Thissongissick.com.

Soundcloud recently announced many changes to their system. The company is rolling out a creator partner program, a change in player options and a new iPhone app.

Guarino says in the post:

As some of you may know, the SoundCloud platform is changing (for better or for worse we will soon see) and we have been issued an ultimatum: resolve all outstanding takedown orders that had been presented to us or have your account suspended. Thanks in part to some amazing help from friends, artists and labels that we support, we have been incredibly successful in resolving a majority of these takedowns. By providing verification to SoundCloud of our relationships with artists, PR agents, managers, labels and various rights holders, we have done our best to keep a channel you love up and sharing amazing music.

Unfortunately, it has not been enough to overcome the politics at play in our situation.

It is important to note that we have been working with some amazing people at SoundCloud and appreciate the extra help and support they have provided. Sadly, this support and commitment to maintaining SoundCloud's largest music account stops there. Bound to some tricky copyright technicalities - and as a result of increased pressure from legal teams protecting SoundCloud's liability - we have received notification that the account will be temporarily suspended. We will continue to work on this issue in hopes that we can restore our account to what it once was.

Guarino says that ThisSongIsSick is one of the largest users on SoundCloud, with over 500,000 followers. He included a screenshot of their SoundCloud statistics in the post.

Many ThisSongIsSick.com fans have explained in the post's comments that they have lost playlists of their own, created from This Song Is Sick's account because of the suspension.

The blog is using YouTube to release new mixes and music until their SoundCloud account is back up.

Become A Member

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Westword has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.