There can only be one Artist!
There's only one Green Day. Nobody would even think of starting a band called Green Day—or they'd quickly abandon the idea. But with lesser-known bands, name conflicts are a recurring problem on streaming services.
When we reformed our band 25 years ago, we named it "Division By Zero." I don't remember why. We played gigs in and around Hamburg and released an album on CD. Spotify and the like were still a long way off.
A few years later, a band formed in Poland, also called "Division By Zero," and they also played live and released CDs. They were more successful than us. So, if you searched for a band with that name, you'd quickly find a lot of them and very little of us.
They'd snatched the name from us and probably hadn't even noticed. We changed the band's lineup for various reasons, and that was a good time for a new name.
Back then, only a few people who knew us even noticed. So, it wasn't really a big deal.
Today, we not only have a different name, but the music world has also changed dramatically. Music is streamed, and only a few nerds, like me, are still buying vinyl records.
If we release a single, an EP, or an album today, we can distribute it digitally within a few days. On Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, and others
This is handled either by the band's label or by the band itself. We're with a small label, but we still take care of distribution as well.
A few years ago, if you wanted to make music available on streaming services, the only way was through a label. Only they had the ability to upload music. Today, there are numerous services.
If we release a single, an EP, or an album today, we can distribute it digitally within a few days. For an annual fee, I can now happily upload music, and it's available online within a few days.
On streaming services, there's only one band called Green Day. There's only one band called Division By Zero. And there's only one of us, too. Theoretically.
The service we use takes all of this very seriously. It ensures accurate data, requires the labeling of AI-generated music, and warns artists if it looks like there might be fake streams. But not all services are like that.
We rehearse in a former air-raid shelter in Hamburg. A legendary bunker where Tocotronic, Olli Schulz, and other Hamburg legends have rehearsed. It's not exactly cheap, which is why we share the space with some of our friends' bands. One of them is called SPATZ.
SPATZ released an EP last year, which I immediately listened to on Tidal and added it to my albums. I've been following the band there ever since.
Recently, the band surprised me with three new singles and a new album. They hadn't mentioned anything about it, I was surprised. Quite unusual artwork. Strange.
A few years ago, I discovered the band ABAY. I have a knack for finding bands when they've either just broken up or are about to. ABAY was one of those bands.
So I was all the more pleased by their sudden re-release. Which, after clicking play, sounds rather unusual.
Neither SPATZ nor ABAY (I seem to have a thing for bands with all caps) are actually SPATZ and ABAY in this case.
With SPATZ, I'm not even sure if this is an AI project; the covers certainly look like it. But the real problem is something else: the name.
When I, as an artist, subscribe to such a distribution service, I provide my stage name. If the service is primarily concerned with making money and not checking what the users are actually doing, then I can enter whatever I want.
Because a band can only exist once for streaming services, I could simply use any existing band name and exploit the band's profile.
I don't want to accuse anyone of anything malicious in either example; the artists certainly didn't know each other. But I do see a problem.
Although I, as an artist, receive a unique artist ID on Spotify (and other services), there's only one profile for the band name. All releases are merged together in this profile, even if they belong to two different bands.
For artists, this is obviously terrible. In the worst-case scenario, they lose listeners because these listeners no longer like the supposedly new, different music. In SPATZ's case, the sheer number of new releases from other artists means her EP gets lost in the shuffle.
The solution would be to have different profiles for bands with the same name. They supposedly have different IDs.
Until then, I could simply rename our band to Green Day and see what happens.
