Any music I upload is being automatically taken down for ‘Intellectual Property Violations’, despite the audio being 100% original and not having any other presence online to warrant it being flagged. This has happened to almost every audio I’ve uploaded today without fail, and is hampering my workflow and jeopardising releasing an update for my game tomorrow.
As the creator of the audio, in no way has this audio violated any terms of condition of mine. In my terms of conditions I allow use of my music to be used for purposes for media like Roblox. In this current state I allowed Crazyblox to upload RFA - Raining Island II to Flood Escape 2 as it was a commission in which he represents. I tried uploading the audio myself consecutive times and in this I was unable to get it to pass through.
Here are the affected ID’s that got instantly removed.
13988327918
13988367255
13988511704
13988517109
13988525652
Upon further investigation there are 2 IDs here that were uploaded during this yet passed; I mention this because the creator page insisted that there was an asset creation error, leading me into thinking that uploading wasn’t working.
13988496167
13988497942
I am still looking into the other audio files you linked to me. However I do have an update for the ‘Raining Island II’ track.
Raining Island II has been registered as a copyrighted track and is banned by our systems because of that. Since Roblox does not have a system in place for users to validate licenses we cannot accept the uploading of any song that has been registered as copyrighted. If you did not register the song yourself your label or distributor may have done it on your behalf.
Raining Island II I have never distributed it. Since I am the owner of such copyright I am asking for you to unregister it. My email is RFAContact@yahoo.com (This email is for purposes like this (this isn’t my main email)) and the distributor of the original Raining Island is Magroove. I have never registered this nor has my distributor has.
Also since we’re talking about copyright, isn’t the reason for this new system is because you got sued for not respecting creators terms of services? This makes you guys look hypocritical like this new audio system was used as a cover up. I am allowing Crazyblox to upload any tracks registered in RFAStudio and if you want verification you can talk to my music distributor (Magroove) about it.
While I would have preferred RFAStudios to use more productive language for your sake in trying to help us which I do appreciate you reaching out for, our concerns are valid in that songs are being taken down without having signed up to such digital fingerprinting service that would automate taking down a track.
I’ve conversed with RFAStudios personally and I can confirm that while the songs are uploaded on Spotify, she has not opted in to any automated take-down service or other method that would make using her music elsewhere an issue.
The fact that the company is applying a blanket ban to copyrighted audio regardless of licensing is deeply concerning. I’m an artist and put songs up on spotify myself. Does this mean that if I decide to upload my own music to roblox in which I should be the one in saying where it is and isn’t allowed that I would NEVER be able to upload it because of this? As an inverse this would state that Roblox is exerting exclusivity rights over any and all audio uploaded to the platform. (EDIT: Roblox is now allowing copyrighted audio to be uploaded based on the below edits? What is going on…)
Regardless, it sounds like this is a system that is too big to be budged, and now I will have to resort to using another audio for my game, despite having already paid commission to the creator who gave permission to let me use it in the first place.
For you as an individual, I’m sure you tried everything in your power, so thank you for looking into this.
For the platform however, I’m genuinely upset and appalled with these practices, and seeing an absolute lack of movement on the audio system since the blanket ban in early 2022 is an insult to anyone producing audio for the platform.
Edit 1:
I am testing the system by uploading my track Redense - Orbit, which is on Spotify. I will report back with results.
Edit 2:
My track Redense - Orbit seems to have been uploaded without issue. I tested further and uploaded Crazyblox - POST, with no issue. RFAStudios has also uploaded multiple tracks from Spotify which are now passing with no issue. What the fuck is going on??? None of what anyone’s saying is making sense anymore, none of the logic is holding up. Arrrrrgh.
Sorry for the delayed response, I wanted to make sure I had everything clear before replying.
My previous post about copyright was a bit confusing. At Roblox one of the ways we detect copyrighted audio is through a third party service called AudibleMagic. Many labels and distributors (including Magroove) will publish audio tracks to AudibleMagic so they are not used by others. For some of the files uploaded here I believe the matches are false and will be passing that on to make sure they will not be caught in the future. I will update this thread when I get a response for this.
The other issue you are running into is allowing others to use your audio that has already been uploaded to AudibleMagic. Unfortunately we do not have a solution for this problem at Roblox. Supporting licensing permissions is a multi-year project that we are just starting to look at. I know that this is probably not the answer you are looking for but I wanted to let you know the situation as it is currently. We are very aware of creator’s issues with audio and are working on improving the experience for everyone over the next few years.
What about audios we made and uploaded to AudibleMagic ourselves? Will we still have to wait years before we can verify ownership? All major streaming platforms support this, but Roblox support does not.
How can we reliably expect to use our own audio on the platform if it gets detected, even with the artist name matching our Roblox username?
Even if you uploaded your own audio to AudibleMagic Roblox currently cannot allow you to upload it to the platform if it is detected as a copyrighted song. Currently the only reliable way to upload your original audio to the platform is to not upload it to AudibleMagic and to make sure your distributor does not upload to AudibleMagic on your behalf. Again this is probably not the response you were looking for but please know that we are working on improving the various audio flows on the platform and that these changes take time.
This is really helpful info. I appreciate you diving into the timeline for this project as well. It will be a major step forward for audio on the platform
With this info I’ll be able to make changes to my workflow to adapt to this and in regards to working with others who are known to upload their works online via certain services.
Hello again, just following up on some of the audio files that were blocked. The audio files you uploaded for asset 13988525652 should now not be flagged by our systems. For the other assets they had sections that matched closely with other songs registered with Audible Magic and as such we cannot accept them at this time.
Good to know this problem still persists, I’ve been banned before because of false flags and not a SINGLE response on roblox’s end. What am I supposed to do? And why, of all things, am I not told WHY exactly and HOW it violates what it violated (for example, telling me what it’s copywritten by)? I’ve uploaded things that got removed and left me to guess why it was removed. I’d end up having to test uploading (while risking my entire account because using their system to upload sounds is apparently a cardinal sin); sometimes it was because I forgot to make it quieter (yet in-game I can make it 10x volume??), Sometimes it was high-pitched (but it wasn’t, not even on a spectrogram) or even copyright infringement (I made it yesterday using piano samples from a piano website.)
I’ve submitted so many help requests, and not a single one was even LOOKED at. Why? What am I doing wrong? They aren’t angry (one might be a bit, but it was because I was in the middle of something and I got banned from a false flag which still hasn’t been apologized about months later), they aren’t spammed, and each outline all information I could remember.
Any Staff out there willing to respond to this, PLEASE, just tell me. I’m creating two games, neither of which have harmful intent. But I’ve essentially been constantly flicked off by your moderation system and appeals are just a waste of time to write up. I’m absolutely exhausted by risking my account by trying to make games. I’ve been thinking about learning an entire new coding language just to make a unity game or something. I’m actually tired and paranoid of it.
Every time I upload a sound, I make it -10dB just to make sure. I sometimes even lower the pitch of them by 4x just to make sure it doesn’t trigger the moderation flag for pitch. Every upload I sit and watch, just waiting for a little red octagon and a message sent to me treating me like a rulebreaker. I don’t even know how to properly address this entire… thing.
Just happened to me when I uploaded part of a song of my own (I was hoping to upload each instrument separately to make a dynamic theme in my game). Unfortunately my appeal request got a response merely stating “you can use licensed audio in Studio” instead of addressing the situation. Strangely, the original ogg I tried to upload couldn’t be uploaded at all but importing to and exporting from Audacity seemed to fix it. I’m not sure if that somehow was a factor.
I’ll admit that one instrument might be too simple for detectors to differentiate it enough from anything else to deem it unique. Perhaps my ambitions were a bit much and just aren’t compatible with Roblox. (Fortunately I at least have an earlier version with all instruments approved)
I really hope the Intellectual Property update on the roadmap for next year will also be for music and thus help us avoid these cases.
Is there really no way for Roblox staff to provide a case-by-case review of these things, if it is proven?
For example, I uploaded the steam boat willie video, which is in the public domain. It was removed for copyright.
However, there is absolutely ZERO doubt, this IS in the public domain. So why can’t Roblox take a look at situations like these, where is easy to verify it’s in the public domain, or to prove you made the song/got permissions?
There is but that would require them to do their job correctly for once so instead they’ll just claim that they have “no system to prove you are allowed to use the song” is even sadder when the song/sound effect has been in the public domain for the last 20ish years and they still remove it.
they have a copyrighted audio removal system that’s so strong that it manages to get false positives more often than missing actual copywritten audio. Yet, they refuse to make audio public. It’s been 2 years. Bring back public audio.
