A sagacious reader has alerted us about a rather intolerable situation (thank you, A.!): it seems like the latest Revealed Recordings release from Tony Junior – Dat Heb Jij Gedaan (Hardstyle Edit) is clearly inspired by a free Hardstyle FLP uploaded by the user known as riesieboi on YouTube and SoundCloud on December of 2021. Here’s what we know about it.
First, a premise. We are (obviously) against the people who seize free FLPs and tracks from the web and try to get them signed on major labels, de facto profiting over the work of real artists who generously shared them with the community on the sole purpose of helping others learn. It’s very complicated to prove such plagiarism, except for blatant cases where the tune is the same as the ‘public’ version. Revealed Recordings in the past has canceled releases because of this particular issue, and we appreciate that.
Today, however, it’s different. Tony Junior is a renowned component in the roster of Hardwell’s label, a professional with several years of career backing him. A controversial figure, although let’s see what we got here.
First of all, Tony has never publicly released an Euphoric Hardstyle record before. Big Room, yes, but this kind of style sounds unusual for him.
“Dat Heb Jij Gedaan” is a 2021 pop hit from the Dutch singer MEAU, thus the release is targeted toward a Dutch-speaking market.
On the 29th of December last year, riesieboi uploaded his bootleg (with download links to his FLP) on YouTube, while the release on SoundCloud happened in April of the following year. Tony Junior released his Hardstyle Edit on the 1st of July, several months after riesieboi’s version came out.
One may argue that Tony Junior may have played the song live, and riesieboi having heard it, made a rework (and that’s what happened with a rework of Tony Junior’s “Lambada” released by the user, a few days back). It’s unlikely. 1001Tracklists.com, a company known for managing precise records, only showed a play on the 1st of July (Emre Cizmeci – Call Of Week 312), other than which we found no traces of the remix being played live in 2021.
The two versions are undoubtedly similar. Same melodic pattern, same lead, same pre-drop fills and structuring. Even if we try to approach this with an impartial view, it’s obvious that someone took inspiration from riesieboi while his files were available to everyone. So…
There’s some post-production work and a professional mix and mastering, with the bassline sounding ‘fuller’ and slight addition to the final lead, though.
riesieboi’s version has achieved some popularity, with 400.000 views on YouTube and 70.000 on SoundCloud. Based on a discussion in the comments, he’s aware that other people have stolen the track, being a free bootleg with no copyright.
Whether Tony Junior took advantage of this situation, it’s up to you to decide. All we would ask is to compare the two versions.
In our opinion, this is a lack of professionalism and we would like to see more transparency from the people involved. Hoping there’s an explanation that will sort out this matter without any delays.
What do you think?
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