Marz (MZMC) is fired (?) from SM Entertainment, files copyright claims for a bunch of SM tracks

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

#NCT_TSRUPDATE:

Producer Marz gets fired from SM Entertainment and files copyright claims for NCT tracks

(including Dreams ‘Best friend’ and ‘Candle Light)

allegedly, they will no longer make money off performances of these songs and cannot distribute them officially pic.twitter.com/w0AwEUsVkF

— The Shade Room (@NCTshaderoom) July 14, 2020

• In 2018, EXO's "Love Shot" was accused of plagiarising Louis Tomlinson's "Back to You"; Love Shot was produced by MZMC and SM Entertainment was forced to add Louis Tomlinson as one of the writers of the song


• The tiff died down for a bit before both parties were once again involved in a copyright war, this time with each other; the issue also died down right after


• MZMC was recently fired/quit (not really sure if he's fired or quit but most people are leaning towards fired due to his plagiarism issues) and he claimed copyrights for the songs he produced for SM (the songs are found below)


• In a recent IG live, MZMC claims that SM pays producers horribly and that Chinese companies pay 25x-30x the amount SM pays


• He also says in the IG live that SM only has master rights of the song but not the sync rights (I'm super confused at this part so can anyone help me out please?); EDIT: A master licence is the right to use/own a master recording of a song for use on records. A sync licence is the right to use that master recording for repurposing into other forms of media (commercials, TV BGM, recorded performances)


• It is assumed that SM is legally not allowed to distribute these songs or make money off of them but can still be performed so long as SM compensates him and arrangements were made beforehand; but they cannot post live performances of the songs or use it in advertisements, other media, etc.; these are all assumptions however so nothing is 100% sure; EDIT: According to vintage_boom, "They can use the original recordings of the songs on future albums (like greatest hits) or reprints of the original albums they appeared on. Live performances in the future can be recorded with permission from the rights holders. Live performances can still be done in concert since that's a separate license entirely."


• NCT will be releasing a concert DVD for NCT DREAM SHOW on August 5th but "We Go Up," "Best Friend" and "Candle Light" were excluded due to copyright issues


• As of writing, SM has yet to release a statement regarding this

Here's a list of the songs MZMC is claiming copyright for:

NCT127’s BOOM is also being claimed

— The Shade Room (@NCTshaderoom) July 14, 2020

Sources: @NCTshaderoom (1, 2), @YUTAL0VER, @SM_NCT, Bbangya News, kpopthoughts on reddit

Added clarifications on some points. Many thanks to vintage_boom for the help!

Comments

[greasetastic-x.livejournal.com]

I saw that the songs would be removed from the Dream DVD and was really confused but this explains it. Shit

Wait...... theres are some of my favorige songs to be performed. Baby dont like it! We go up! Cherry Bomb! Come back!
SHINee's 1 of 1, Feel good, Prism!!! A bunch of Exo's bigger tracks
My guy deadass took title tracks with him jfc. That sucks. It'd be funny if SM was just petty and didn't let these groups perform the copyrighted songs but it's not possible with the title tracks. Welp

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

7th Sense is included too rip that track was so good

[greasetastic-x.livejournal.com]

Lmao the only reason i didnt include 7th sense in this list (bc i absolutely love that song) is like let's be real they aint finna perform that ever again. I'll be shocked out of my minddddd if SM would ever let Ten come through and perform that with the others at this point

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

Oh well in that case then yeah, I agree lmao SM did a one-and-done with their best song

[dior-chic.livejournal.com]

‘In a recent IG live, MZMC claims that SM pays producers horribly and that Chinese companies pay 25x-30x the amount SM pays’

I would not be surprised by this

[lizanka23.livejournal.com]

Yeah another SM producer recently talked about how poorly SM pays compared to Western labels and that they are not working with Korean companies anymore

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

We been knew

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

Literally MTE

[binderwritings.livejournal.com]

There was obvious bad blood between him and SM since that other producer posted about SM screwing her over(which supports the idea that he was fired tbh) and IDK how true it is but there was supposedly an issue with one of his EXO songs On the EXO planet dvd so I'm guessing it was his synchronization rights at play....

He was messy so good riddance but man that pettiness.... As long as those songs remain on Spotify and they can perform them/the mvs remain untouched I don't think it will do much. I feel like most people don't even buy concert DVDs (but this could be my broke ass projecting)

[otraera.livejournal.com]

he was behind some great tracks.

[sheisagentleman.livejournal.com]

the nct tracks holy shit......
AND 1 of 1!!!!!!!!!

[evilcoc0nut.livejournal.com]

Well SM shouldn't be so stupid. And their current batch of writers sucks too.

[vintage-boom.livejournal.com]

Master License > The right to use/own a master recording of a song for use on records

Sync License > The right to use that master recording for repurposing into other forms of media (commercials, TV BGM, recorded performances)

Marz has been sour for so long, I think his contract ended not that he quit or get fired and now is just being petty knowing the industry has to go full recorded performances rn because he could grant them the licenses and make more money.

It is assumed that SM is legally not allowed to distribute these songs or make money off of them but can still be performed so long as SM compensates him and arrangements were made beforehand; but they cannot post live performances of the songs or use it in advertisements, other media, etc.;

this is slightly incorrect. They can use the original recordings of the songs on future albums (like greatest hits) or reprints of the original albums they appeared on. Live performances in the future can be recorded with permission from the rights holders. Live performances can still be done in concert since that's a separate license entirely.

[vintage-boom.livejournal.com]

I think Marz is also not being cautious enough in airing his shit out and since his contracts still likely fall under SK law he could get sue by SM for libel. but that's a whole other thing.

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

Ooh okay, I get it. I was going by the tweets that were made about it so I copied some of them but it was really confusing? So I put disclaimers because someone here might give a less confusing description. This makes more sense now. I'll go add these in! Thank you so much for this!

[vintage-boom.livejournal.com]

np! there's a few other licenses but those are the two that get brought up the most.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

Rookie, RBB, Fine, Love Shot, Kokobop... so many title tracks. SM better pay him

[mortkero.livejournal.com]

I want to know all the £££ because the guy sure has been a money earner for SM judging by his copyright list.

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

He claimed in his IG that SM was offering a $1000 for the rights despite the songs making them millions? tbh I'm taking everything he's saying with a grain of salt because he's messy and a $1000 for the rights might be an exaggeration but considering SM's history, I wouldn't be surprised either.

[nefertitii.livejournal.com]

hell no theyre amazing

[nefertitii.livejournal.com]

shimmie shimmie kokobop.mp3 is super groovy and RBB has very interesting and difficult to execute vocals so i appreciate it

[nefertitii.livejournal.com]

i will pray for you to see the light 🙏

[smilla-sini.livejournal.com]

SN ain't shit in general but we've known about Marz being a freaking petty mess that likes to talk crap about everything and everyone for YEARS, sm shouldn't have relied on him so heavily, now here we are with butchered dvds.
Leave Going Crazy and Oasis be and piss off you ass!!!!

[rolezeira.livejournal.com]

Wait... The Shade Room posted this? Lmao

Very disappointed in SM. I love a lot of these songs........ crying for 1of1, prism, our page, countless, the eve, tempo, kokobop, love shot, RBB..... noooooooooooooo

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

Ah, no they didn’t! I was confused earlier too but nah, they’re not affiliated lmao

[rolezeira.livejournal.com]

Lol i fell for it 🤡🤡🤡

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

yikes sm should've treated this (and other) producer better b/c they created some very good tracks for them, 1of1? been through? artificial love? prism? all so good

[daynr.livejournal.com]

*cackles*

I enjoy watching (seemingly) jerks fight each other, let the petty out.

[snowphone.livejournal.com]

damn so many good songs..

[jackieee94.livejournal.com]

Ima need SM to at least save The Eve. That song is a masterpiece.

[aeries-amethyst.livejournal.com]

Justice for The Eve! That song is absolute perfection! *O*

I still can't believe they made KKB the title track over The Eve but at least we got iconic performances of it

[blck-ink.livejournal.com]

lol why is there an nct shaderoom hahah

i don't know how much i can believe from this guy. i usually stau away from his lives but the short clips i've seen of him were quite messy. it would also really surprise me if sm didn't have the sync rights to those songs cause that would be a big pay loss.

[laranal.livejournal.com]

lol i didnt even know about the louis thomlinson thing. i just listened to his song and yikes. it's the same chords but that bridge is really a rip off

[dior-chic.livejournal.com]

OMG 😬

[kcaomei.livejournal.com]

oof lol

[aeries-amethyst.livejournal.com]

You see I don't pay attention to 1D news but good grief, how did this not blow up before? That is a legit rip off.

[lizanka23.livejournal.com]

That plagiarism bit is sketchy but at the same time record labels and kpop companies tend to be exploitative of creatives, so I’m more on the producer’s side. I wonder if SM will release a statement about this

[blackholexx.livejournal.com]

I watched his live yesterday and I kinda get a gist of what happened but does anyone have a link to the plagiarism scandal he got caught up in?

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Soompi or the other news outfits except AllKCrap ngl so SM might have buried it while they fixed it? Because SM added the credits to Louis Tomlinson and Bazzi in January according to the stans

Louis Tomlinson, Bazzi and Chanyeol (EXO) and Chen (EXO) have been credited as Composer/Author on EXO’s “LOVE SHOT” along with 12 other composers / writters. @weareoneEXO (https://twitter.com/weareoneEXO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

— EXO Views (@exo_views) January 23, 2019 (https://twitter.com/exo_views/status/1088056717932482567?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

[pepsi-twist9.livejournal.com]

Marz has worked with them a lot but he's also been super vocal about how he feels about SM as a company. He's spoken about the treatment of artists even while releasing songs with SM. I wouldn't be surprised if he was fired with Love Shot being a tipping point.

[aeries-amethyst.livejournal.com]

I'm looking at the list of songs and I'm like damn...Quite a few of these are not just my fave tracks but also title tracks. Imagine not being able to perform some of these songs again.

For a second there, I thought they meant NCT Dream's Boom, but apparently it's the 127 one...Which pales in comparison to the bop that Dream blessed us with. We Go Up is such a bop, definitely one of my fave Dream tracks. I still don't like Cherry Bomb so there is no love lost there.

OLT was legit one of the best songs on Holiday Night and Fine is probably my fave Taeyeon solo track aside from I, Why and 11:11. So many of those Shinee songs are actual gems.

The Eve is absolute perfection and will forever be superior to KKB. I love Love Shot but yikes at that plagiarism.

He can keep Rookie and RBB. Sorry RV.

[ohlookshiny.livejournal.com]

what a mess, no clue how sm will navigate this in the future. he did some great tracks :( sm will be petty and never pay him copyright fees (or however this works, sry if that sounds dumb). this will have a big impact on their concert releases. i wonder if this is why sm hasn't uploaded their beyond live concerts yet (still waiting).

[cosmopudin.livejournal.com]

lmao this is funny considering what he went off about not too long ago

but I'm sad about the shinee stuff... all those songs are masterpieces

[shawarmafordays.livejournal.com]

What a mess...

I can't believe they buried the blatant plagarism of Love Shot, especially since it was huge for EXO.

I'm not surprised they don't pay producers but some of these are huge bops for their artists.