DistroKid Pulls Original Songs From Spotify and Apple Over UMG Suit

DistroKid removed original songs by independent artists from Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube last week in response to copyright claims tied to Universal Music Group's September lawsuit — and Nashville singer-songwriter Josh Sahunta found out from a friend's text.

The friend asked why Sahunta had taken his 2022 album Mellowdrama down from Spotify. He had not. The LP ranked among his most-streamed projects and supplied a significant share of his streaming royalties. Within days, much of the album was grayed out on Spotify and had vanished from Apple Music, YouTube and other platforms.

Sahunta contacted DistroKid customer support directly. The distributor told him Mellowdrama — an album he wrote and recorded himself — had been flagged for copyright infringement. Support did not say which recordings he allegedly infringed, nor name the rightsholder behind the claim. DistroKid nonetheless issued Sahunta a copyright strike, freezing his royalty payments and threatening his ability to release future music.

After unanswered emails, Sahunta posted his story on Instagram last Tuesday. His comments and direct messages filled with reports from other artists facing the identical problem.

Independent artists, Sahunta told Rolling Stone, "are unfortunately the most powerless group in the music industry. And the irony is we comprise the majority of music on streaming, yet we're so easily taken advantage of and screwed over by these companies that claim they are for independent artists… They're preying on the people that are paying for their services and keeping their businesses afloat."

What does the takedown wave change for artists?

It leaves them without recourse when an automated enforcement sweep misfires. DistroKid has acknowledged the problem. "A very small number of recordings distributed through DistroKid have been removed in response to claims made by [Universal Music Group]," Amanda Ferri, the company's Vice President of Artist Services, said in a statement first shared with The Verge. It remains unclear how many legitimate artists the takedowns have affected.

"We strongly dispute the allegations underlying UMG's lawsuit and regret the disruption to affected artists," Ferri continued. "We are working to minimize that disruption while protecting artists' ability to release their music." Universal Music Group did not immediately return a request for comment. DistroKid declined to comment on the tools it used or its efforts to rectify erroneous notices.

The dispute traces back to September, when UMG sued DistroKid for deceptive business practices and "blatant" copyright infringement. The suit argues that despite marketing itself as a "leading music distributor for artist-backed releases," DistroKid has been "flooding platforms with AI-generated 'slop' that siphons revenue and listeners from legitimate artists and right holders."

Among the alleged offenses, UMG said DistroKid lets users upload:

• Unauthorized remixes or sped-up versions of protected songs
• Instrumental copies with new vocals layered over them
• Protected album art attached to infringing tracks, which could trick listeners into playing the wrong song

Where does AI slop fit in?

UMG's suit highlighted several high-volume DistroKid account holders with names like "Lofi Chill," "Chill Flow Radio" and "Mellow Vibes Radio," each regularly distributing hundreds of tracks a month. Noting these "production rates are implausible for any human artist," UMG claimed a "technical analysis" confirmed that "the vast majority of their tracks… are raw outputs from the AI song generator, Suno." UMG is pursuing a separate infringement suit against Suno over its training data.

"DistroKid's willingness to be a home for such sham artists has inured to its benefit," the lawsuit states. "Its distribution rate has exploded in the AI era." The filing also notes that DistroKid recently sold a majority stake to the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for $2 billion.

Facing massive infringement claims, DistroKid appears to have moved to purge allegedly infringing content from streaming platforms while still denying UMG's underlying claims. How original music like Sahunta's got caught in the sweep remains unclear.

Joel Gouveia, an artist manager who wrote about the takedowns on his Substack last week, believes DistroKid likely used an algorithm or AI-based program to root out infringing songs. He noted to Rolling Stone that such detection tools are themselves new and imperfect.

"Instead of taking the precautionary [measure], taking their time, using humans to figure out if this music is in fact made by humans, they mitigated the risk," Gouveia said. "They just did mass takedowns. I think, at the end of the day, they will fix it and hopefully these artists won't be completely SOL [shit outta luck], but it's really sad to see."

As of Monday, Oct. 12, much of Mellowdrama is still grayed out on Spotify and unavailable on Apple Music and YouTube. Other distributors have offered Sahunta deals since his Instagram post, but he stays wary — the same failure could recur elsewhere.

"I think the real lesson for me here was just that, as an independent artist who doesn't have the infrastructure of a label to help prevent these things and advocate for me: when something like this happens, I'm powerless," Sahunta said. "I can't really do anything to defend myself."

With UMG's lawsuit unresolved, independent artists on DistroKid face a longer wait to learn whether automated enforcement and human error can be kept apart.