How One Journalist Is Using Music Royalties To Fund His Ocean Reporting

Ian Urbina has made a name for himself as a journalist covering illegal activities in the world’s oceans. In 2015, as a staff writer at the New York Times, Urbina published The Outlaw Ocean Project, a series of articles describing various illegal activities in the high seas. Urbina left the New York Times in 2019 to continue his work on The Outlaw Ocean Project independently. Since then, Urbina has continued his deep investigatory research on the high seas, and even published a book of the same title in 2019, which became New York Times Bestseller.

Alongside the book, Urbina also created The Outlaw Ocean Music Project, which ostensibly serves to generate music based on Urbina’s journalism. According to the Project’s website, the music generated under The Outlaw Ocean Music Project uses field recordings collected by Urbina during his 5 years of reporting at sea. However, one of the musicians tapped to participate in Urbina’s Music Project recently revealed how Urbina’s Project may be scamming hundreds of musicians under the guise of artistic collaboration.

On Thursday, composer and recording artist Benn Jordan published a 20-minute video on YouTube that takes a deep dive into his experience working with The Outlaw Ocean Project. According to Jordan, Urbina invited him to contribute music to the project in May 2019. While Urbina said he would not be able to compensate Jordan for his contributions up front, Urbina made myriad promises to Jordan for contributing to the Project: “Spotify is building a podcast around it as they are intrigued by its innovative nature,” Urbina told Jordan via email. “Netflix and Knopf, who are both creating things tied to the book, are eager to promote the soundtrack.”

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