The online guitar community has rallied in support of YouTuber and bass player Danny Sapko, who recently found himself at the center of another fake guitar player scandal.
Sapko has built a healthy following on the video platform and currently has over 620,000 subscribers. Much of his content is concerned with calling out fake playing and bad practices in the guitar community.
In a recent video, Sapko accused Marcelo Perez Schneider – a viral Argentinian guitarist/bassist – of fake playing, alleging that he mimes along to pre-recorded tracks live in order to "fool" his audience.
Schneider's playing videos – which have been praised by Nuno Bettencourt, Kiko Loureiro and Michael Anthony – are characterized by hyper-technical runs and speed-tapping sequences.
Sapko alleges that the viral bassist mimes along to pre-programmed tracks live. In his first video on the topic, he drew attention to multiple audio and playing discrepancies – such as mistimed slides, song cuts, and passages where notes and phrases don't match up.
In response to his allegations, though, Sapko received a serious copyright strike on his video, causing it to get pulled from YouTube entirely.
Copyright strikes against YouTube channels are serious business, cutting creators off from monetization opportunities, and even seeing the channel taken down entirely if they’re hit with too many strikes.
“In less than two days, [my accusation video] gathered over a million views with people in absolute disbelief of the evidence presented,” Sapko explained in a follow-up video, addressing the scandal.
“How did Marcelo respond? He turned off all comments on his Instagram after the backlash and had my video removed with a copyright strike put on my channel.”
The video was taken down entirely by YouTube because of a seven-second, phone-filmed live clip, meaning that was copyright strike one against Sapko’s channel.
If history had repeated itself with his second video, which alerted viewers to the copyright strike, Sapko says: “I am one step away from whole channel deletion.”
Key figures in YouTube community offered support for Sapko, who alleged his attempts to highlight the fake playing were being silenced. Ola Englund, for example, hit back, saying in his own video of support: “Using the copyright system to silence criticism is a dangerous thing.”
Englund encouraged people to hop over to Sapko’s channel and show support via comments and subscribing to his channel. Sapko also has a Patreon, where the original video is being hosted for free.
“I started posting regularly on YouTube to get out of the job center,” Sapko explained. “So, if you've ever thought about supporting this channel, now would be the time because I have had a proper wake up today about how quickly this could all be taken away.”
His first video has since been reinstated, and the copyright strike against Sapko's channel has been removed.
Sapko noted to Guitar World that it was a minor victory for YouTube creators, but says there are still huge problems with the copyright system and how easily entire channels could be deleted because of people abusing the process.
Fake playing accusations are rife in the online guitar sphere. Last year, Sapko was also at the center of the Giacomo Turra storm. He was one of the earliest voices to accuse the social media guitarist of stealing other musicians’ songs for content.
Head over to Danny Sapko's YouTube channel for more.
