New Update: Serial Plagiarist FLOD Caught Again – and His Entire Discography May Be Phony

Producers and label owners have unmasked a long trail of allegedly pilfered tracks downloaded from Beatport and then repackaged and sold under the name FLOD, an alias of Italian producer Flavio Lodetti.

DJ Magillian on Thursday posted a long list of tracks credited to Lodetti which appear to be note-for-note copies of tracks released by other artists, some released as long as 10 years ago.

“The admirable dream world of Flavio Lodetti aka FLOD,” Magillian wrote. “Congratulations to this great swindler and thief who steals tracks created by other artists and sends them to publishers as his own.”

Incredibly, it appears Lodetti’s alleged plagiarism was first discovered when Lodetti sent demos of stolen tracks to the person who made them. On January 7, Gábor Szeles, proprietor of Witty Tunes, posted a warning on Facebook addressed to label managers and producers that “an artist called FLOD” was claiming other people’s work as his own.

“He sent us a demo submission with 7 tracks,” Szeles wrote, and “all 7 [were] from my previous alias, just he changed the title and he wanted to release it under his own alias.

“I’m sure that’s not the first attempt from him, so check his previous works – you might find some ‘familiar’ sound.”

Szeles posted the tracks to Dropbox after Lodetti deleted them from SoundCloud – which is fair because, after all, Szeles actually wrote them.

DJ Magillian posted a fairly staggering list of other tracks (reproduced below) which matches the original source material with Flavio Lodetti’s “FLOD” releases. We’ve gone through all links and they appear to be identical. None of the tracks in question feature a shift in tempo or rearrangement: they’re simply note-for-note copies of previously released material by other artists.

Who is FLOD, aka Flavio Lodetti?

Lodetti has a surprisingly long history in the industry, and has released for labels including Nervous and Todd Terry’s InHouse (that track, “Terminal,” was released by InHouse just 3 weeks ago, appears to actually be Groove Busters’ “On The Ground” released in 2014).

Lodetti previously ran Panormus Music and currently runs Frabon Recordings. One of the allegedly stolen tracks is “Deepin” published in October 2018 on Frabon’s ADE sampler, which is identical to “Hold Back” by Capryo, originally released four years ago by Piston Recordings.







Lodetti even had other producers remix some of the allegedly lifted tracks. “Pyramid” was remixed by Danny Serrano, Lucas Ferreyra, Mihalis Safras and Wally Lopez. The track appears to be a direct, unedited copy of a 2013 track by producer Jee Groove called “Brasillico Voice.”

Ironically, one of the tracks Lodetti is accused of lifting is “FUN” by Lighter Thief, which appeared eight years ago on a compilation by the same Mihalis Safras’ Material Series. Safras himself was accused of plagiarism and releasing tracks on Material Series which had been lifted from other artists.

Multiple producers have posted screencaps of their inboxes with a “flood” (sorry) of emails from Lodetti submitting a half-dozen or more demos at a time. Apparently quite a few bit: new tracks from Lodetti are still being identified and traced to earlier releases from other producers as we speak. “Unfortunately as a result of this post I double checked the upcoming single I signed from Flod and as you would expect it’s a stolen track from 2015,” one label manager wrote in the comments of Szeles’ post. “There’s not even any changes made to it.”

If this is not the most widespread case of plagiarism in dance music, it may be the most blatant.

David Budai created a video showing “FLOD’s greatest steals”:

“This asshole is not the first to send suspicious demos to my labels,” DJ Magillian told 5 Mag. “I saw Gábor complaining that he had sent him a a few demos stolen from his old alias to his label and I ran his Beatport catalog on several apps like Shazam and YouTube Content Manager and the result was this sadness.”

5 Mag has reached out to Lodetti via Facebook and will update this story when and if we hear anything back. In the time it took to post this article, however, the review page and all comments on FLOD’s facebook page were deactivated and he appears to have made his Instagram private while we were attempting to embed an image. Thankfully there are screenshots:

If you believe your track has been appropriated unlawfully, you can file an intellectual property rights violation form on Beatport here. For other services, a DMCA Notice Generator is available here.

Read The Update To This Story: Serial Plagiarist FLOD Caught Again – and His Entire Discography May Be Phony

FLOD Tracks And The Original Releases

Here is the list from DJ Magillian’s original post. Note that several additional tracks have been identified since then; this is by no means a definitive list. Several of the labels who released music by FLOD have indicated they are in the process of having them withdrawn.

Original – Jose Ponce – Smoke Tech – Insolito Records

https://www.beatport.com/track/smoke-tech-original-mix/5160759

FLOD Release Libertad (Original Mix) – BLACKSOUL

https://www.beatport.com/track/libertad-original-mix/10989029

Original -Capryo HOLD BACK- Piston Recordings

https://www.beatport.com/track/hold-back-original-mix/5913983

FLOD Release DEEPIN – Frabon Recordings

https://www.beatport.com/track/deepin-original-mix/11134622

Original – Lighter Thief – FUN Material Series

https://www.beatport.com/track/fun-original-mix/1332703

FLOD Release Travesura – Smokin Joe Records LDN

https://www.beatport.com/track/travesura-original-mix/10447531

Original – Alex Marcu – Chihuahua 1994 Music

https://www.beatport.com/track/chihuahua-original-mix/3963256

FLOD Release LA DANZA FRITA – Klap Music

https://www.beatport.com/track/la-danza-frita-original-mix/11176396

Original – Tiernan-Locke – MAN OF SOUL Baikonur Recordings

https://www.beatport.com/track/man-of-soul-original-mix/7578133

FLOD Release Rokes (Original Mix) Eisenwaren

https://www.beatport.com/track/rokes-original-mix/11138780

Original – Mikel Curcio – echos @London Music

https://www.beatport.com/track/echos-original-mix/829337

FLOD Release – Egosh (Original mix) Klap Music

https://www.traxsource.com/track/5761755/egosh-original-mix

Original -JEE GROOVE Brasilico Voice 2014-06-23

https://www.beatport.com/track/brasillico-voice-original-mix/4957382

FLOD Release Pyramid + Danny Serrano, Lucas Ferreyra, Mihalis Safras & Wally Lopez remixes Frabon Recordings

https://www.beatport.com/release/pyramid/2378286

Original – Jed Stemp / Disobey – Lackin Disco Whartone Records

https://www.beatport.com/track/lackin-disco-original-mix/1939909

FLOD Release – Ballaro (Original Mix) – Smokin Joe

https://www.beatport.com/track/ballaro-original-mix/10447530

Original – Paulo Foltz – DARK LOUDNESS Roberto Medeiros REMIX

New Look Recordings

https://www.beatport.com/track/dark-loudness-roberto-medeiros-remix/7877618

FLOD Release – Relieve (Original Mix) Frabon Records

https://www.beatport.com/track/relieve-original-mix/10721660

Original – Omid S Musik – LOS SANTOS – Younan Music

https://www.beatport.com/track/los-santos-original-mix/2741784

FLOD Release FIESTA ROOM FLOD CLAPS Records

https://www.beatport.com/track/fiesta-room-original-mix/10556050

Photo: FLOD’s facebook profile picture.