Someone put your game's soundtrack on Spotify under their name. How to get it taken down.

A player sends you a link. It is your main theme, on Spotify, under an artist name you have never heard of. The cover is a screenshot from your game. A week later your own trailer on YouTube has a copyright claim on it, and the claimant is the same stranger.

A game we shipped was extracted, rebuilt and resold, so we know what it is like to find your work presented as someone else's. Music is a particular case of it. The files are easy to pull from a finished game, music services accept uploads from anyone with a distribution account, and an upload that goes through that route can reach every major service and YouTube's matching system at once. That is also the good news: the same route that spread the copy is usually the fastest way to remove it. This page covers who has to file, what to save, how to find the company that delivered the upload, the notices to send, how to clear claims on your own videos and your players' videos, what the law offers if money was made, and what to set up so it does not happen again. It is not legal advice, and the places where a lawyer matters are marked.

1. Work out what you are looking at

Several different problems arrive looking the same. They need different responses, and one of them is not theft at all.

The last row matters because one developer described a blocked devlog after a distributor claimed music they had licensed from another artist. YouTube's own rules say that matches against "royalty free" production music libraries must be routed to manual review before claiming, which helps, but a library track is not yours alone, and the fix runs through your license, not a notice.

2. Confirm who can file

Only the copyright owner, or someone authorized to act for the owner, can send the notices below. For game music that is often less obvious than it looks.

• You wrote and recorded it yourself. You own it, and you file.
• A composer made it under a written assignment to you or your company. You own it, and you file. Keep the signed agreement where you can find it.
• A composer licensed it to the game and kept ownership. Some composers work this way. The composer is the owner, and the composer files. You can still do the legwork and hand them the list.
• Nothing was written down. The page on stolen assets explains why the default is that the composer owns it, and how a written assignment fixes that, including for copying that has already happened.

This is worth settling first because a takedown filed by the wrong party can be rejected, and in a later dispute it gives the uploader an easy argument.

3. Save what you will need

Releases on music services can disappear the moment the uploader notices you. Before you report anything, save:

• A link to every copy. The album and each track, on each service. Apple's form says a link from the iTunes Store or Apple Music is the most accurate way to identify content.
• The credit lines. The artist name, the label, the release date and the ℗ and © lines shown on the release page, plus the "Provided to YouTube by" line on any YouTube copy. These name the distributor (section 4).
• Screenshots of the release pages, with the date visible, including the cover art. If the cover uses your game's logo or screenshots, that is a separate trademark and copyright point worth recording.
• Every copyright claim on your videos, with the claimant name and the matched track, from the claim details in YouTube Studio.
• Your own proof. The game's release date, the store page, and the dated project files, stems or session files for the music. A composer's dated deliveries count.

4. Find the distributor first

Independent uploaders rarely deal with Spotify or Apple directly. They use a distribution service, which delivers one release to many services at once and, often, to YouTube's matching system as well. The distributor's account terms almost always forbid uploading music the user does not own, so the distributor has its own reason to act.

DistroKid, one of the largest distributors, explains on its own help page how to tell who delivered a release: check the ℗ and © lines and the "more info" section on the streaming service; on YouTube, "the 'Provided to YouTube by' line often indicates the distributor"; and a label shown as something like "123456 Records DK" means the release was likely delivered by DistroKid. The same page says that if music it distributed infringes your rights, you can submit a DMCA takedown request through its form, and that if another distributor delivered it, you should contact that distributor directly and report to each service where the music appears. It also notes that most distributors list their copyright contact in the terms linked at the bottom of their site.

Why start here: the composer of Tunic described the reverse of your situation, when a false claim removed his albums. "They simply had to send an email to Apple Music with no proof," he told Game Developer, "and the entire network of streaming services will instantly remove the music." The pipe that carried the copy out to every service is the same one that can pull it back. Our advice is to send the distributor your notice first, then report to each service where the release is still live a few days later. If the distributor is outside the United States or does not answer, go straight to the services.

5. Report it to each service

Each notice needs the same core facts that U.S. law requires in a takedown: your identification of the work, the exact location of the copy, your contact details, a good-faith statement, a statement under penalty of perjury that you are the owner or authorized, and your signature. The guide to writing a notice covers each part. For music, identify each track separately and name the game it comes from.

Spotify

Spotify's intellectual property policy points copyright owners to its web form, or to its copyright agent at infringement-claim@spotify.com, and lists what a notice must contain, including a statement that you understand your contact information or notice will be provided to the uploader. Spotify says it may remove the content or disable access in specific countries, and that it has a policy to terminate repeat infringers. If the cover art uses your game's name or logo, the same page has a separate trademark form.

Apple Music

Apple has a dedicated Music or Music Video Content Dispute form. You can list up to 50 albums or tracks in one dispute and specify every territory where you claim rights on the next page, so you do not need to file separately for each country's store. The form says the name and email you enter will be supplied to the provider of the disputed content. Apple's dispute page says it usually replies with a reference number, and that follow-ups should go by email with that number in the subject line, not through a new form.

YouTube

Copies of a music release on YouTube often appear as automatic "art track" videos under a topic channel. For any copy, YouTube's copyright removal request can be filed in YouTube Studio under Content detection. Three options on that page are worth knowing: you can schedule the request to take effect in 7 days, which gives the uploader time to remove it themselves and avoid a copyright strike; you can ask YouTube to prevent future copies of the same content; and an attorney or other authorized representative can file for you if you do not want your details shared with the uploader.

Everywhere else

Distributors also deliver to services such as Amazon Music, Deezer, Tidal and many regional stores. If the distributor removal did not reach them, look for the service's copyright policy, or find its designated agent in the U.S. Copyright Office's agent directory, and send the same notice.

6. Clear the claims on your videos and your players' videos

This is often the part that hurts most, because it reaches people who are promoting your game. When an uploaded copy of your soundtrack is entered into YouTube's matching system, your trailer, your devlogs and every stream or let's play with your music can be claimed, and the ad money on those videos can go to the uploader.

Your own videos

YouTube lets you dispute a claim if you have all the necessary rights to the content. The claimant is notified and has 30 days to respond. They can release the claim, let it expire, reinstate it, or submit a copyright removal request, which, if valid, removes the video and gives your channel a strike. If a reinstated claim stands, you may be able to appeal, and the claimant then has 7 days. YouTube says plainly that it cannot decide ownership, which is why the claimant reviews both steps. Two details matter:

• Dispute within 5 days. If you do, YouTube holds the revenue from the first day of the claim and pays it to the right party once the dispute is resolved. After 5 days, it only holds revenue from the day you dispute.
• Quote YouTube's own rule. YouTube's matching-system eligibility rules state: "Original Video Game Soundtracks are only valid references when owned by the video game's publisher," and only when "delivered under the video game publisher's content owner." A stranger's upload of your score does not meet that rule. Say so in one sentence in the dispute, alongside your statement that you own the music.

A dispute cannot be cancelled once submitted, and a dispute that turns into a removal request and a counter notification becomes a legal process. If the claimant escalates instead of releasing, that is the point to talk to a lawyer.

Disputes treat the symptom. Our understanding is that new claims keep arriving while the uploaded reference stays in the matching system, which is why the distributor notice in section 4 matters more than any single dispute. We found no published figure for how quickly claims stop after a release is removed, so keep a list and recheck after each step.

Your players' videos

Streamers cannot see who owns your music. Post a short, dated note where they look: your store page announcements, your community hub or Discord, and the game's press page. Developers have done this for years; one posted a note for video makers explaining a false match on a public-domain sound and advising them to dispute it with a link to the source. A useful note says that the music belongs to you or your composer, that you permit its use in videos of the game, that the claimant is not authorized, and that players can dispute with that statement and a link to the note. Then ask them to tell you which claims they see. Their reports often find copies you have not.

7. If they made money from it

An uploaded soundtrack earns streaming royalties, and claims earn ad revenue. Getting that money back is a legal claim, not a form.

The clearest recent example is Sega's. According to Aftermath's report of the complaint, filed in Florida in January 2026, Sega said it found in March 2024 that a user had uploaded two of its soundtracks, Persona 3 Reload and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, to Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon and other services through DistroKid, using the Persona 3 Reload logo. The official album was not yet available digitally, and players on Reddit, quoted in the report, noted that the uploads came back after each removal. Sega said it subpoenaed Apple, Spotify and DistroKid to identify the uploader, and it sought at least $60,000 on claims including copyright infringement, trademark infringement and unfair competition.

Two things in that case apply to small studios too. First, the services and the distributor hold the uploader's identity and payment records, and a court can order them produced; you cannot get them by asking. Second, the trademark claim came from the use of the game's logo on the cover art. If the copy uses your game's name or art, mention it in your notices and keep the screenshots.

If you are considering a suit over a U.S. game, registration matters. Federal suits over U.S. works generally require registration first, and the registration guide covers timing. One detail specific to music: the Copyright Office's circular on sound recordings explains that "sounds accompanying a motion picture or audiovisual work" are not sound recordings but part of the audiovisual work. Music as it plays in your game is therefore part of the game's audiovisual material, while a separately released soundtrack album is a set of sound recordings and musical works. Which registration covers what you need to enforce is a question for a lawyer before you file.

8. Make the next copy harder

Most of this is our advice, drawn from the cases above.

• Release your own soundtrack. Sega's uploads filled a gap: players wanted an album that did not officially exist. An official release under your studio or composer name, on the day the game ships or soon after, gives players the real thing and gives the services an earlier, verifiable release to compare against. One music asset creator explained that they put every track on streaming services precisely so that no one else can upload and register it first.
• Fingerprint the audio. Some distributors offer free fingerprint registration that does not require releasing the music. DistroKid's DistroLock, for example, is free, keeps only an audio fingerprint, and can also register the audio with Audible Magic, a public fingerprint database that DistroKid says YouTube, SoundCloud, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitch and others use to block unauthorized uploads.
• Choose about the matching system on purpose. If you or your composer put the soundtrack into YouTube's matching system, your own trailer and every player's video can be claimed by your own distributor. DistroKid notes that its claims appear under the name "Interstreet Recordings," that videos can be allowlisted one at a time only after a claim, and that a whole channel cannot be allowlisted. Some composers leave game music out of the matching system so that players are never claimed; the creator quoted above does exactly that. Decide which matters more to you before release, and tell players in your press kit.
• Put it in the composer contract. Who owns the music, who may release the soundtrack, whether it goes into any matching system, and who files takedowns. The asset page covers the signature side.
• Keep the dated sessions and stems. In an ownership dispute, they are the evidence no uploader can produce.

Questions developers ask

Do I need a registered copyright to get my soundtrack removed from Spotify?

No. Spotify's notice requirements, Apple's dispute form and YouTube's removal request do not ask for a registration. Registration matters if you later sue.

Who should I contact first?

The distributor named in the release's credit lines or "Provided to YouTube by" line. It can remove the release from every service it delivered to. Then report to any service where the copy remains.

Someone claimed my own trailer with my own music. Can I dispute it?

Yes, if you hold the rights. Dispute within 5 days so the revenue is held, and cite YouTube's rule that game soundtracks are valid references only when owned by the game's publisher.

Will the uploader see my name?

Probably. Spotify, Apple and YouTube all say they may share your contact details with the uploader. On YouTube, an authorized representative such as an attorney can file instead.

My composer kept the rights. Can I still act?

The composer is the owner and should file, or authorize you in writing to file for them. You can gather the links and evidence for them.

The copy is back under a new name. What now?

Report the new release to the same distributor and services, and point to your earlier report numbers. Repeat uploads are what repeat-infringer policies are for, and they strengthen any later legal claim.

Should I put my soundtrack into YouTube's matching system?

It protects your revenue from copies but also claims your own trailers and your players' videos. Some developers and composers leave game music out of it so that people can stream the game freely. It is your choice; make it before release.

This page describes Spotify's intellectual property policy; Apple's dispute forms page and its music dispute form; YouTube's pages on content eligible for its matching system, disputing a claim, monetization during disputes and copyright removal requests; DistroKid's help articles on takedowns and counter notices, Interstreet Recordings and DistroLock (read in a browser because the help centre refuses automated requests); the Copyright Office's Circular 56; Aftermath's report of 8 January 2026 on Sega's complaint, which was not itself read; Game Developer's report on the Tunic soundtrack (September 2023); and two itch.io posts, all as read on 24 October 2026. Statements about how distributors deliver releases, that distributor terms forbid uploading music the user does not own, and that claims continue while the uploaded reference remains are general description without a linked source. The notice order in section 4, the player note in section 6 and the advice in section 8 are our own and are marked as such. It is general information, not legal advice about your situation.