I often check around the internet to see if there are any duplicate videos that have been uploaded of the Singing Dogs. It's nothing strange to find some duplicates out there online. What's odd is I found that Rumble, a new hopeful Youtube competitor/video licensing company apparently has had one of our videos of Sierra singing the classic New Year's song “Auld Lang Syne” up on their DailyMotion channel for a few years now. Here is the video I'm talking about in case anybody needs a refresher.
This video had been up for about one year before it was re-uploaded to DailyMotion without our knowledge or consent. Here is the description;
Looks like this dog was getting right into the New Year's spirit! He sings along to the classic tune, ‘Auld Lang Syne'. Best wishes in 2013!
This is is very annoying but not what I find most confusing about Rumble doing this though.
A representative from Rumble contacted us a few months ago about our original Auld Lang Syne video that features both Cody and Sierra singing along to “Auld Lang Syne.” Again here is the video just so people know.
This is the video which got us invited on Anderson with Anderson Cooper awhile ago. We still get a lot of requests about this “Auld Lang Syne” video and various companies and people being interested in using it or wanted us to sign the rights over to them so they can license it out.
Rumble wanted us to sign an exclusive contract with them for only this Auld Lang Syne video featuring both dogs. Basically Rumble's main goal is to be a Youtube competitor by paying content creators more money for their videos and by accepting only quality videos. Unlike some of what you see on Youtube which is not “high quality” or “viral worthy” I guess. The other part of their business is video distribution and licensing to TV shows or outlets that want to use this videos. At least this is their business model to my understanding.
What's odd is I specifically asked whether Rumble was interested in other videos of Cody and Sierra, particularly the solo Auld Lang Syne video that is currently uploaded on their Rumble Virals DailyMotion channel with the title “Classy Dog Sings Auld Lang Syne.” This video has been on the site since January, 2013. The video is not on their Youtube channel from what we can tell. I have no idea why.
I should make it clear that at this point in time we have no agreement with Rumble for licensing or distribution of any of our videos. In an exchange I actually asked about the Auld Lang Syne video of Sierra and the reply was they were not even interested in it. The Rumble representative said that they were only interested in the Auld Lang Syne video featuring both dogs, which I think is really pretty whack considering they've had the video of just Sierra up for a few years on the DailyMotion channel. I did notice the video is also on Yahoo, Jokeroo, and a few other places probably because of Rumble.
Checking around the internet I always see duplicate uploads of our videos and content but I've never seen one of these video licensing companies upload and use one of our videos without knowledge or consent. They've probably been distributing the video and getting paid without sending us any checks for awhile. I wonder where it's appeared that I do not know about and who has used it and on what platforms, TV shows, or networks it's currently in?
Kind of an odd and weird experience with Rumble. When I asked about the second video and they said they were they not interested…. why was that? They've already made money from us and were just looking to secure the video licensing rights after the fact? Of course why were they not interested in the other video? Did Rumble assume we wouldn't notice this?
I'll be contacting Rumble to get to the bottom of this and get some answers. In the meantime the Singing Dogs and myself are not to pleased with this situation but there is not much we can do.
UPDATE – I never got a reply from Rumble so I guess my thoughts about them are accurate, they are thieves. If you are contacted by them about licensing do not work with them.
Do you have any other weird experiences with Rumble or another video licensing company or Youtube marketing firm you want to share? If you are a video creator how do you deal with other people re-uploading your content and videos?