SoundCloud uploaders have been experiencing a bit of turmoil as of late, as DJ accounts have been hacked and tracks have been unjustifiably removed from user profiles. First, iconic producer and DJ Deadmau5 had his entire account hacked and flooded with Selena Gomez songs, and then DJ Martin Garrix was the victim of a company takedown of several of his legitimate mixes.
Deadmau5's SoundCloud was hacked by a team who referred to itself as OurMine, in what began as a relatively harmless prank in which the team uploaded a series of Selena Gomez songs to his account. Things got more serious when the team, seemingly offended that Deadmau5 brushed off their move, attempted to release his address, phone number and other personal details. Turns out the hackers had the wrong information, however, as the phone number and address were not current, and apparently the incident is over as Deadmau5's account is now restored to its former state.
Deadmau5 wasn't the only victim on SoundCloud this week, as popular DJ Martin Garrix had 7 of the 22 tracks he had posted to the streamer removed by the company's automatic protection system. Garrix posted a screenshot on Twitter along with a message reading "Wtf guys?" detailing all 7 removals, along with the emails from SoundCloud claiming that his tracks may contain copyrighted content. Each removal email sent to Garrix followed the same format, stating:
"Our automatic content protection system has detected that your sound (each Garrix song is named individually) may contain the following copyright content: (song upon which the track is supposedly infringing) owned by (owner of copyright). As a result, its publication on your profile has been blocked."
The tracks included some of Garrix's most popular tracks, his remix of The Weeknd's top pop hit "Cant Feel My Face" which to date has over 24 million streams on SoundCloud, along with his original "Forbidden Voices," which has amassed over 12 million streams. Most of the tracks have now been restored, and Garrix's "WTF" tweet is now deleted, but the incident itself proves that SoundCloud's automatic protection system leaves a lot to be desired.
