Findaway Voices, Intellectual Property Rights, and the Future of Audiobook Production!

Now that the fireworks are a yesterday thing, and I survived the doctor’s appointment (which went poorly because SURPRISE, I’m fat and lazy, y’all), I wanted to do my best to expand on the audiobook thing, what I’m doing about it, and how things will move forward.

Status on Chirp Books: I do not know if Chirp will remove things from libraries like Audible does. They SHOULDN’T, but that doesn’t mean anything. (By contract, once you buy the license, it’s supposed to STAY yours.)

Status on Kobo Books: They have confirmed that all books purchased remain in your library, even if the book is removed from sale.

Please note that I will not be able to merge kobo purchase history. At most, I can get reviews merged, and that’s only if there’s a window when both are up for sale at the same time. (That window will likely close before I can get everything uploaded direct on kobo.) So, if you buy on Kobo, PLEASE check your library before you buy audiobooks from me, as you may end up with duplicates!

I am working at getting my entire collection up on the Patreon store at the moment. What is the benefit of the Patreon store? You directly download the MP3 files for the book. That is YOUR book, and some site can’t take it away from you.

Storytel: I have inquired if there will be a way for Americans to use their site for publication. At this point, it’s restricted to European publishers only unless using Findaway Voices.

What has been uploaded to the Patreon shop so far?

All Susan Copperfield novels, excepting A Guiding Light and Trickster King, are now available in the Patreon Store.

Dawn of Dae and Unawakened (Dae Portals series) are now available in the Patreon store.

I considering a payhip store for those who want to have audiobooks in the Bookfunnel app. Please comment below if this interests you. I’m really not sure about it, but I’d love to hear your opinion.

Okay, so, that’s where I’m at in the process of getting audiobooks restored everywhere possible. I’m building a new audiobook page that will list all titles available in Audiobook format, where they can be found, and links. It’ll basically be a huge list by pen name / series, so you can check what’s available. Expect a few weeks for this to be finished because it’s a lot of work.

For those of you who missed it, or what a better understanding of what’s going on, here’s the story.

Yesterday, Findaway Voices by Spotify (Yes, that is their official name) sent an email that read as follows:

Now that Findaway Voices is part of Spotify, we’re excited to bring audiobooks to a wider audience and to continue empowering authors and publishers all over the world.

In connection with Spotify’s acquisition of Findaway, we are replacing the Findaway Voices Digital Distribution Agreement with an updated Terms of Use. Among other changes, Schedule C of the Findaway Voices Digital Distribution Agreement is being moved into a new Payment Terms page, which is incorporated into the Terms of Use by reference. The Terms of Use and Payment Terms have also been updated to reflect Spotify’s acquisition of Findaway and to make them easier to understand.

These changes are effective as of March 15, 2024. You do not have to do anything else in order to agree to these updated Terms. By continuing to use Findaway Voices by Spotify, you accept the updated Terms.

Findaway Voices by Spotify

Red flags went off at this point.

The contract was already easy enough to understand (for me, who has had much experience reading contracts), but… that’s a lot of words to say “Hmmmm… interesting. Let me see what this is hiding.”

Nothing in here is a mention of a rights grab / change of user content, for the record. I just have a good bullshit scanner, and it went off.

Nothing in particular made it go ping ping, but… it went ping ping. Probably due to the lack of an actual “Here’s the list of direct changes we made to the terms.” That’s code for “We are hiding shit in here.”

Sure enough, they were hiding shit.

Here’s what they hid:

Licenses that you grant to us

User Content

You retain ownership of your User Content when you post it to the Service. However, in order for us to provide the Service to you we do need a limited license from you to that User Content. Accordingly, you hereby grant Spotify a non-exclusive, transferable, sublicensable, royalty-free, fully paid, irrevocable, worldwide license to reproduce, make available, perform and display, translate, modify, create derivative works from (such as transcripts of User Content), distribute, and otherwise use any such User Content through any medium, whether alone or in combination with other Content or materials, in any manner and by any means, method or technology, whether now known or hereafter created, in connection with the Service, the promotion, advertising or marketing of the Service, and the operation of Spotify’s (and its successors’ and affiliates’) business, including for systems and products management, improvement and development, testing, training, modeling and implementation in connection with the Spotify Service. Where applicable and to the extent permitted under applicable law, you also agree to waive, and not to enforce, any “moral rights” or equivalent rights, such as your right to object to derogatory treatment of such User Content. Nothing in these Terms prohibits any use of User Content by Spotify that may be taken without a license.
You also agree that, if you create your User Content with one or more collaborators, you will ensure that each such collaborator has granted to you all of the rights that you need in order for you to grant the licenses that you grant to us herein in such User Content.

Discontinuation of Distribution

You may request that Spotify cease to distribute the User Content at any time through the distribution workflow in the Service; provided, however, that Spotify and its distribution partners shall be permitted to continue providing users who purchased access to User Content prior to your withdrawal with continued access to such User Content. Spotify will make commercially reasonable efforts to remove the User Content within 30 business days of receipt of such notification from you, subject to these Terms, the Payment Terms, and any applicable distribution partner terms. You acknowledge that such removal requires action on the part of Spotify’s distribution partners and may take longer than 30 business days to complete.

The discontinuation section is what I was talking about with how Kobo and co SHOULD be keeping your libraries intact. That is SUPPOSED to be there.

But let’s break this apart in detail:

Accordingly, you hereby grant Spotify a non-exclusive, transferable, sublicensable, royalty-free, fully paid, irrevocable, worldwide license

• non-exclusive: they can post more than one place, essentially.
• transferable: they decide when they give rights to my stuff to others
• sublicensable: they can earn money from licensing my intellectual property
• royalty-free: they do not have to pay me when they transfer or sublicense my content
• fully-paid: they do not owe me any money for using my stuff
• irrevocable: I can’t cancel this
• worldwide: they can do it everywhere
• license: that’s the thing that lets them sell my audiobooks on my behalf for a royalty.

When put it all together, this sentence means they can do whatever the fuck they want with my intellectual property for all eternity without compensating me for it.

to reproduce, make available, perform and display, translate, modify, create derivative works from (such as transcripts of User Content), distribute, and otherwise use any such User Content through any medium

• reproduce: to make a copy; I have granted them permission to make copies of my audiobooks to sell at vendors. This is the foundation of what copyright is and why protecting it is important. Reproduction is not uncommon in these clauses, and by itself, it’s fine.
• to make available: see: reproduce
• perform and display: part of basic copyright, because audiobooks are considered a performance (and it is.) This is fine.
• Translate: to change the language presented (This is bad, I am NOT giving them translation rights of my audiobooks)
• create derivative works: Movies, videos, ads, creating things based on my characters and worlds, etc.
• distribute: yes, they’re a distributor, that is what they’re supposed to be doing. This tidbit is technically find
• otherwise use any such User Content through any medium: we can do what we want how we want in any format… yes, including “translate” the book from audiobook to text and then sell the ebook without compensating me for it. This is very bad.

Combined, this means “we can do what we want, when we want, how we want… and you get zero say in it.”

In a different section is this gem:

All provisions of these Terms of Use which by their nature should survive termination will survive termination, including, without limitation, licenses of User Content, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

Translation: “we don’t have to stop doing what we want, when we want, how we want.”

Back to the User Content paragraph is this sparkling jewel of bullshit:

Where applicable and to the extent permitted under applicable law, you also agree to waive, and not to enforce, any “moral rights” or equivalent rights, such as your right to object to derogatory treatment of such User Content.

Let’s say your name is Suzie, and you wrote a super sweet Christian romance about a couple finding each other under the backdrop of a peaceful religious experience.

Spotify can, with this clause in place, take Suzie’s book, turn her male lead into a rapist asshole, and make it a non-con rape erotica. Suzie, according to this clause, cannot do anything about it.

Yeah, this contract is a literal dumpster fire.

If you are an author, and you have audiobooks with Findaway, get them out, and get them out now.

They knew exactly what they were doing. This is not an innocent individual who made a mistake. This corporation handles millions of dollars in revenue. Spotify already has a huge reputation for fucking over musicians.

They are coming for authors now.

Yes, Audible/Amazon fucks shit up, but Audible has never tried to grab our rights. They just attack our wallets. And that makes them an angel in comparison to Findaway Voices by Spotify right now.

Late last night, Findaway by Spotify sent this message to everyone:

Earlier today, we shared planned updates to our Findaway Voices by Spotify Terms of Use that are set to take effect on March 15, 2024. Our goal was to introduce language that would allow us to offer authors innovative features, improve discovery, and provide promotional tools such as share cards while assuring authors that you “retain ownership of your User Content when you post it to the Service.”

In the hours since, we’ve received valuable feedback, and we understand that there is confusion and concern about some aspects of this language. We want you to know that we hear you and are actively working to make clarifying updates to alleviate your concerns.

We are deeply committed to your success on Spotify. In the meantime, please stay tuned for more details. 

Findaway Voices by Spotify

“We only mean the best for you, really!!!”

Gaslighting is never cool, and this is a classic sample of a company that has been caught doing something naughty, so they are trying to spin it so we feel like the problem was all in our head.

It’s not.

We are AUTHORS. We literally gnaw on words for fun and spit them out to entertain people. Sure, we may not be LAWYERS, but we get how words work at a basic level.

We know a rights grab when we see one. We are like well-trained dogs, and our job is to sniff this shit out.

This company is not innocent. If they HAD been trying to “make new features”, they would have MENTIONED THAT in the terms update. But they didn’t. They “were making the terms easier to understand” along with some stuff about “reflection of Spotify’s ownership.” Nothing in there was any indication of new features.

In my part of the world, we call that “blatant lying.”

What looks like bullshit and smells like bullshit is usually bullshit–I have zero interest in tasting what this bullshit tastes like.

And conveniently… their terms give them 30 days from the time of notice before everything counts.

How convenient for them.

I severed my contracts within fifteen minutes of seeing that nonsense, for the record.

And yeah, I don’t believe them, nor do I believe them… and even if they do update their contract, I am not trusting them with my intellectual property, even if it costs me thousands a month in lost income.

Spotify fucked musicians over, and they tried to convince us they wouldn’t fuck us over.

But here they are, fucking us over.

I really and truly hope every author with books over at Findaway opts to go for the direct model, makes use of sites like Patreon, and goes direct with as many vendors as possible.

In the meantime, I will be hunting for ways to get my audiobooks into the public library system without using Findaway.

They have displayed their true colors… and I choose to believe what they wrote.

They meant it. Had those “features” existed, they would have proudly told people… not slid in right grabbing clauses and tried to claim they were “making the contract easier to understand.”

What smells like bullshit and looks like bullshit very probably is bullshit, and I refuse to be fed bullshit.

I will fight to keep my intellectual property rights, thank you.

Thank you for reading, I apologize for the inconvenience this will cause many, and I hope that the Patreon store makes it easier for you to keep your copy of your audiobook without fear.