Marco.org

Laura Hudson, Wired:

Coulton’s willingness to speak up and enlist the support of his online audience also prompted other artists to come forward, claiming that their song arrangements had been lifted wholesale by Glee for songs aired on the show and sold for profit on iTunes.

It’s a shame that the producers of a show so known for promoting goodwill and underdog victory have repeatedly, blatantly ripped off independent musicians wholesale, with unreasonably cold hostility and implicit public denial.

Fans of Glee should be disgusted at how the show is actually produced, and the entire cast, crew, and production staff of Glee should be ashamed that their work is now tarnished with such low-class, unnecessary, willful theft.

If you work on Glee and have any dignity whatsoever, there are only two classy moves you can make in response: push the right people to get this fixed, or quit.

But given that this appears to be a repeated pattern by the show, I’m not holding my breath that anything will happen. It’s apparently made by classless, spineless assholes.

From the outside, I and many others have chosen to buy Coulton’s re-released original on iTunes in support:

It’s a cover of Glee’s cover of my cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s song, which is to say it’s EXACTLY THE SAME as my original version. I’m releasing this under the same Harry Fox license I used for the 2005 release, so Mix will get all the royalties due to him. I’ll donate the proceeds from all sales that happen between now and the end of February to two charities: The VH1 Save the Music Foundation, and The It Gets Better Project.

If you’re new to his work and are looking for a good entry point, I’m a big fan of his 2009 live album as well, which includes the live version of his Baby Got Back arrangement and many of his hits.