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Who owns HitPiece? NFT marketplace slammed for allegedly stealing music

HitPiece is being slammed for allegedly minting and selling music NFTs without the knowledge of the artists

HitPiece, a controversial NFT marketplace, is being slammed for allegedly minting and selling music NFTs without the knowledge of the artists. A number of songs recorded by major contemporary and electronic music artists have allegedly been minted as NFTs and listed on HitPiece's website. The website seems unreachable at present. 

As per HitPiece's website, "A non-fungible token (NFT) is a one-of-a-kind, non-fungible, cryptographic token representing a unique digital asset for which there is no copy or substitute. An NFT cannot be substituted for another NFT as each NFT is distinctive and unique in some way. An NFT is not a medium of exchange and is not convertible virtual currency."

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On HitPiece, users can place bids. A listing of 'Pure Grinding', a song recorded by late dance music icon Avicii, is now Accepting Bids" at an initial list price of $100. 

What is HitPiece?

As per HitPiece's website, "HitPiece lets fans collect NFTs of your favorite songs. Each HitPiece NFT is a One of One NFT for each unique song recording. Members build their Hitlist of their favorite songs, get on leaderboards, and receive in real life value such as access and experiences with Artists."

The website further says, "One NFT is available for auction from each artist initially. The auction commences when the first bid is placed and lasts seven days. When the auction has been won, the NFT is minted and delivered to the winner’s custodial wallet. The next NFT from the artist becomes available. The winner of the auction reveals the next NFT from the artist. The winner receives the newly minted NFT to their custodial wallet on HitPiece.com and can show it off in their Hitlist or sell the NFT at anytime."

Who owns HitPiece?

LinkedIn shows that Rory Felton is HitPiece's co-founder. As per his LinkedIn bio, Felton, who studied at the University of Southern California, helps "entrepreneurial creatives grow their audience, navigate business deals, and beyond." He is also a "World-class A&R and marketing director with a focus on music, digital, video, print, social, and outdoor content; a "purveyor of good taste and design"; and an "RIAA Gold Awarded Executive Producer".

Felton is also the owner of Feltone, a "post-media music group with global distribution through Sony Music/The Orchard". He is the advisor of Doghead Simulations, a virtual reality collaboration platform. Felton is a board member/co-founder of Aimule, a venture capital-backed and Ebay accelerated online marketplace.

Felton has previously worked at SVP Marketing in 2019. From 2012-2015, he served as the Vice President of Chirpfy, a Digital Marketing & Social CRM Platform for Brands & Entertainment. He also served as the co-founder/CEO of The Militia Group/Sony Music from 2000-2012. 

Michael Berrin is also a co-founder as well as the Chief Creative Officer of HitPiece. His LinkedIn bio reads, "I am a work horse. Pure and simple. My work to connect consumer to brands is a passion. I use every relationship I have to execute a campaign to make you grow. I listen more than talk. I learn from every experience I have and turn that into unique approaches to my clients."

"I spend a lot of time and effort to understand the soul of your Product Strategy and Brand Development. What I come back to you with is a proven capacity in Business Development and experience in the both music and corporate arenas that allows me to change the narrative to create proven ROI. Extensive relationships with internationally recognized companies as well as A-Tier music artists and entertainers," it adds.

Berrin studied at the High School of Music and Art/La Guardia School of the Arts. He is the Co-Founder, Executive Producer of 4MC MultiMedia LLC. From 1995 to 2018, he served as the Owner/CEO of Serchlite MultiMedia. Senior Director of New Ventures at PMI LLC from 2015 to 2017. He served as the Head of Strategic Partnerships & Marketing, Brand Integration at London group LLC from 2008-2015, and also as Head of Marketing at ECKO UNLIMITED INC. from 1995 to 1998.

'This website is 100% stolen content'

With social media enraged, HitPiece has come under fire and its legality is being questioned by many at present. "Music making friends make sure Hitpiece hasn’t stolen your music and placed it on their NFT marketplace. Lot of artists are finding their music uploaded there without their permission," one user wrote on Twitter. "Wow, creating NFTs out of vulnerable indie artists, well established artists and even big companies (like Disney) is pretty damn stupid. Bet this people under HitPiece got big money with the scam NFTs that were sold," another user said. 

"i literally called them s***piece? my music was stolen too. I can go tweet a cookie cutter "hitpiece sucks!" tweet if that would make you feel better," one user wrote. Another user commented, "This hitpiece music NFT sh** is potentially a great fud-inducing psy op pulled off by anti-NFT folk." "Hey #NFT people. Stay FAR away from #hitpiece . This website is 100% stolen content from artists being sold as NFT's on an ETH "sidechain" AKA SCAM. It also says royalties are given to artists which is a LIE as this is all stolen data from," one user said.