Report illegally published music: How to do it with Spotify, Apple Music, Beatport & Co.

In today's digital music world, music can be released worldwide at lightning speed - unfortunately sometimes without your consent. Whether an old track suddenly appears under someone else's name or a distributor has released it without valid rights: If music that belongs to you is unlawfully online, you need to take action.

Before you contact a platform, you should have the following information ready - almost every provider will ask for it:

• Link to the release in question
• Your artist name and label name, if applicable
• Your contact details (email address, telephone number if applicable)
• Proof of your rights (e.g. contract, GEMA registration, email correspondence)
• Name of your music distributor

Fortunately, major platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Beatport and Deezer offer official ways to report such cases. In this article, we will show you step by step how to proceed - including direct links to the respective forms.

Spotify: Reporting music made easy

Spotify offers an official form that you can use to report unauthorized content. Among other things, you can specify whether it is a copyright infringement, trademark infringement or another problem.

Directly to the Spotify reporting form

Apple Music: Enforce rights via the official form

Apple also offers a clear procedure for reporting music that has been published without consent. You can report your case directly via an online form.

To the Apple Music dispute form

Beatport: Report an infringement to the download platform

Beatport is aimed specifically at DJs and electronic music creators - and here too there is a dedicated form for infringements.

Fill out the Beatport dispute form

Deezer: Report copyright infringements directly

Deezer offers its own platform for reporting copyright infringements. Here you can report music as well as artwork and texts that have been published without your permission.

Copyright notification with Deezer

What else you can do

If you are frequently confronted with such problems or want to protect yourself, you should consider a few basic things:

• Sign contracts with all contributors: make sure you have clear agreements with producers, features or remixers for each release.
• Protect your artist name: Register your name as a trademark to protect it legally and protect yourself from misuse.
• Don't send out your music indiscriminately: Only send your tracks to reputable partners, promoters or labels - and document when and to whom you sent what.
• Documentrights, contracts and ISRCs carefully: Good archiving will help you to prove your claims quickly in the event of a dispute.

Your music, your rights - act quickly

Unlawful releases are annoying - but you don't just have to accept them. Every major platform offers you tools to defend yourself. The quicker you react, the better you can protect your music and your name.
Would you like to have your music professionally distributed - with a partner who protects your rights and is there for you in the event of a dispute?