Oliver Anthony Calls Out Publisher For Flagging “Scornful Woman” Fan Reaction Videos After He Specifically Asked Them Not To

Oliver Anthony butting heads with the establishment? Who could have thought, right?

Life has been a whirlwind for the Virginia native ever since he released his debut single, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” back in 2023. The video of his in-the-woods performance was originally uploaded to YouTube and quickly went viral, racking up millions upon millions of views before Anthony was even able to release the song on streaming platforms.

Now, a couple of years and over 300 million streams later, Oliver Anthony is still navigating his way through the music industry, proving wrong those that said he’d have just 15 minutes of fame following his viral hit. And it was actually the success of “Rich Men North of Richmond” that has given the artist the flexibility to do as he wishes when it comes to his music.

But what he wishes isn’t always what he gets, as he explained in a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.

Anthony brought up an example of attempting to communicate with a publishing company about a concern of his, only for them to not care even in the slightest. He even name dropped Warner Chapell as the company that was handling his overseas publishing… and the cause of his troubles when he requested for creators and fans online to not be hit with copyright strikes:

“All I asked them to do was, ‘Hey Warner Chapell, this six foot square where all of these reaction videos exist, just please white list these people so they don’t get copyrighted.’ I want them to actually make the money they make on the ‘Scornful Woman’ reaction videos, you know?

I don’t feel right if they are gonna go and make a ‘Scornful Woman’ reaction video or play drums over it or whatever, I don’t want to take 50% of it. You know what I mean? Just white list them.”

Oliver Anthony directly told the publishing company that the reaction video creators (reacting to his latest single) were not a threat, and shouldn’t be handled as such. So what did they do? They went against what he was asking and suggested they hit all of the reaction videos with copyright strikes:

“It should have been a, ‘Okay, great, good idea.’ Instead they just said, ‘We can’t do that, but it’s for your protection.’ I tried to explain to them in the business sense… I even counter-argued with them.

I said ‘Think about it in the business sense. This little bit of money that you’re not going to collect off these reaction videos will generate who know how much traffic to the music, which is the money you really want.’ And it shouldn’t matter anyways. It’s not their sh*t to decide on. It’s mine.”

The singer-songwriter compared the publishing company overstepping to a lawn company being told not to cut a specific part of the yard, and them insisting that they cut it anyways. It apparently made for quite the frustrating experience, and as Anthony elaborated on, it’s just another example of the music industry machine creating problems that shouldn’t exist in the first place:

“I had to get my attorney involved and spend like four grand, and they white listed them for 30 days. I was like, ‘Okay, that’s why all of you industry people are so (screwed up). That’s why this is happening.’ They don’t care at all about the little guy or the people who are doing all the work…

They can make all this money and make all these horrible decisions and pour all of these millions of dollars into songs that don’t work, and it doesn’t matter. They don’t care. They’re getting their big salary. Even in the most minuscule relationships that I’ve had in Nashville, I get resistance and push back.”

You can hear more about the Oliver Anthony’s frustrating experience with the publishing company in the the latest episode of The Joe Rogan Experience linked below:

Listen to the new single, “Scornful Woman,” below:

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