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Banned from Android Market being 100% legal

13 points by maxciociola ↗ HN
This morning @ musiXmatch we got an email from Android Team saying our Android Lyrics Plugin has been removed from the store due to their Spam, Content and Copyright Policy.<p>

Well, we spent 2 years to close all licensing deal with all music publishers worldwide in order to legitimate our app and 3rd party developers https://developer.musixmatch.com/<p> But Google prefers to keep mostly shitty and illegal apps on their store https://market.android.com/search?q=lyrics&c=apps&price=1&start=24&num=24<p>We asked explanation but no answers.<p>We had tons of downloads , huge reviews (4.2 on 5 stars) and 6 months development which could have been destroyed.

7 comments

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Zuzz
I understand the frustration but are we so used to instant feedback that we don't even try to resolve our issues anymore before shouting out loud about them on the interweb?

You got an email this morning, shit happens. Try to reason with them and if, and only if, that fails and you feel you are right (as you indeed are) then mount an internet campaign.

maxciociola
yes thanx we've been in the store since last 4 months so we really don't know what's going on
takaaki
Max, I don't have an experience with the market, but did you get a detailed explanation on the reason for banning? For example, did you declare content rating correctly? If lyrics may contain inappropriate content for children, you might have to say so.

I understand you've been working hard this to make this possible. And as Jobs offered a legal way to consume digital music, you do so for lyrics. I truly admire your efforts.

Someone at Google might have misjudged your app, or you might have missed meeting what Google requires, act quickly but remain professional and calm.

I hope users can help this app developer to receive additional explanation from Google.

maxciociola
We have profanity filter for bad words so F* you goes on profanity filter. They said we didn't respect their spam (???) and copyright policy...
delfinof
From a service like Google, and for such a business delicate situation, once should expect at least a contact before an app gets banned, specially when there is a corporate behind it.

Or otherwise review the apps as everyone does.

Google strongly needs to get adult some day...

dreamdu5t
With both Facebook and Google, why aren't developers contacted before the app is taken down?

It is so fucked up to remove someone's product and business arbitrarily without notice.

delfinof
The main problem is that they want to appear "low cost to join" platforms (compared to other app store).

But then, if you make something wrong (simply because they are not reviewing it...) there is no appeal.