It all started with what seemed to be a golden ticket for Gold Coast producer Wongo. Columbia Records wanted him to remix a track by mega-star Beyoncé – what could go wrong? Quite a lot apparently. After having tracks pulled then reinstated only to be pulled again from Soundcloud, it all culminated in a bitter departure from the platform, and a rather funny video.
We reached out to Wongo to get to the bottom of how he found himself in his unenviable position, having to rebuild his hard-earned online following on an entirely new platform.
Having tasted the massive exposure an official Beyoncé remix brings, Wongo hoped to capitalise on the success. “I did two bootlegs, completely unofficial, one of Kanye West and one that was The Chemical Brothers”.
Copping two separate strikes for the remixes within the same month, Wongo tells us he tried to change his methods, contacting Skrillex’s management before uploading his next remix. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late.
“A few months later I received another take down for the Beyonce record,” the producer said, referring to the completely official remix. “Soundcloud told me that I didn’t have the rights to upload it. So my third strike was given and my account was suspended.”
After attempting to resolve the issue and being ignored by the music streaming giant for weeks, Wongo finally heard back, only to be informed that he could have his account reinstated if he had the strikes against his name cleared.
“After talking to the right people, we had Sony take away two strikes, and Universal take away one, leaving me with zero strikes.”
All’s well that ends well, right? Unfortunately not. Wongo was told that it was too late and that his account had been “deleted”, despite having been made to wait weeks at a time before hearing back.
“Finally, months later, we got a personal contact to someone who worked in the office, who did let us know that the account wasn’t ‘deleted’, but that there was no chance of getting it back.”
And so, the Soundcloud dream had died. After looking into various alternatives, such as Apple Music and Mixcloud, the producer finally made his decision, very clearly reflected in the tongue-in-cheek video. “Spotify for me was the definite choice and I felt they have a great connection with their artists.”
All of this leads us to the rapidly-spreading ‘Hope For Wongo’ video, and a vital lesson for producers dealing with digital platforms. While the ordeal may have been stressful, Wongo seems to be quite content with how it’s all turned out. “Spotify really did save the day for me. It’s a great platform where I can release my music and get paid for it.”
