Various musicians slammed HitPiece NFT Marketplace for listing and selling their music without prior consent and approval. Artists including Jack Antonoff, MUNA, Clipping, Sadie Dupuis (Sad13, Speedy Ortiz), Backxwash and more called out the platform on Twitter.
HitPiece markets itself as the source of “1-of-1 NFTs of all your favorite songs.” Supposedly, you can own a song, build a unique playlist and join an Artist’s community through the platform.
POV: Artists
Singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer Jack Antonoff expressed his frustration and disapproval on Twitter. He denounced the listing of his songs and the NFT technology as a whole. He wrote: “any bleachers NFTs are fake. at the moment, I do not believe in NFTs, so anything you see associated with me isn’t real.”
MUNA echoed Antonoff’s sentiments. The electronic pop band asked HitPiece to “kindly take our shit off your site” with an image featuring numerous statements about hating NFTs. For example, “Till my last breath, I’ll hate NFTs.”
any bleachers NFTs are fake. at the moment i do not believe in NFTs so anything you see associated with me isn’t real. and thanks to M for sending me this bullshit 🙂 i’m on one today!
— jackantonoff (@jackantonoff) February 1, 2022
Meanwhile, Clipping has a unique take on the issue. The American experimental hip hop group responded to news of their music being listed on HitPiece by saying they’re looking to see what “we can do to get it taken down.” In addition, they called the whole thing a scam. They also insinuated that this is just a ploy to get them to sell NFTs. “Is the plan to get artists to think they’re actually selling NFTs for millions of dollars so they’ll join up officially?”
Sad13 and Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupuis responded to someone on the HitPiece team, writing, “related question, how do we all get you to remove our music that you’re illegally hosting on your bullshit NFT site.” Dupuis also asked, “how do we all issue takedowns from the random NFT website that we all seem to have just now discovered is illegally selling our music,” and added, “I already asked our label who’s asking its lawyer but in case one of you has ideas.”
It looks like the barrage of bad press worked because, as of press time, hitpiece.com is no longer accessible.
HitPiece Responds to Illegal Music NFTs Allegations
HitPiece issued a statement last night, February 1, to address the situation. It reads: “Clearly, we have struck a nerve and are very eager to create the ideal experience for music fans.” Then, the platform claimed that “artists get paid when digital goods are sold on HitPiece.” This part is confusing because the artists made it clear that they have no existing contracts with the Marketplace.
HitPiece appealed to the NFT community to extend understanding because their product is still in the beta stage. So, they are still “evolving the product to fit the needs of the artists, labels and fans alike.”
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