What is The Blacklist Project?
The Blacklist Project is a service that provides the platform for music producers to help prevent false chargebacks and stolen beats by contributing to and accessing a dynamic blacklist of emails and IP addresses of those who continue to steal music.
The Idea:
Over the years I always wondered how this could even be possible and recently it hit me. Although it would never be possible to fully prevent anyone from stealing anything (not just beats), that there could be a way to severely reduce the amount of which it happens.
You can look at this the same way law enforcement is embedded in our communities. If they did not exist at all it would be pure chaos and crime would be unimaginable. Being that these law enforcement agencies do exist, it severely reduces the amount of crime. Doesn't catch everything of course but enough to live safely and comfortably.
The same concept applies here and together we can help make it better and better!
How to use it:
The only way this could work efficiently is having a dynamic list and database that is easily accessible and compatible with any beat store platform out there by using a public API from The Blacklist Project to add one (invisible) step to every checkout process on any beat store without any noticeable time difference for your customers.
This means that the list will always be updated and changing so there needs to be easy access to it. The blacklist will basically exist not only by producers but for producers themselves.
Every producer will have the opportunity to sign up and create an account at extremely affordable cost (to maintain and keep the platform running) to have access and contribute to this blacklist.
When you sign in to your account it will take you to the Blacklist Dashboard. You will have a few options here. In the middle of the page you can see and scroll through the current blacklist or use the search bar above it to quickly see if an email or IP address already exists. At the bottom right corner you will see a "+" icon which will open up a Blacklist Submit Form where you can add an email & IP address from your recent chargeback experience/dispute. You would even be able to uploaded any useful images for your fellow producers to see to help authenticate the dispute and purpose for blacklisting that email. Click on any email in the list to open up notes and images that the listing user has submitted.
What it does:
This is the really neat part. How does it actually function and make the list useful?
First, setting up the integration is done by logging in with the same credentials (email & password) used on The Blacklist Project website account but in the backend of your beat store account.
When any customer is on your beat store and getting ready to checkout and buy, one extra step is added before any payment is processed by PayPal or Stripe.
This step will use the API call to quickly scan the entire Blacklist database right from your beat store to find any matching email or IP address the customer is currently using.
If nothing matches on the blacklist then the checkout will proceed just like normal without ever knowing the scan took place. On the off chance if an email or IP address on the blacklist does match to the customers credentials being used, then that order will be flagged and the customer will be notified that the process cannot be completed and to contact the producer for further details.
This will give any producers the chance to log into The Blacklist Project dashboard and review any notes on that email and IP address so he or she can make an informed decision on how to further proceed with that customer.
Conclusion
I believe this will finally give producers that fighting chance to prevent as many chargebacks as possible to save money but more importantly TIME from dealing with disputes.
You can show your support to have this made by simply clicking the VOTE button below and authenticating your vote by submitting your name and email. This is only used to verify real people and to account for demand.