Earworm has some amazingly popular mashups on YouTube, but doesn't make any money from them - he makes his money with DJ sets, bookings that are made off the back of them.
Digital DJ Tips reader Aaron G (Aka AGB) writes: “My question refers to the legal issues and guidelines necessary for remixing and track producing in electronic music or any music for that matter.
“Does one need permission to release a track merely for their own amusement or hobby if sampling of other artists were involved? What about the release of a full fledged EP?”
Digital DJ Tips says:
The short answer is: If you stand to gain financially from it, yes. If not, in some cases/territories you can get away with posting it to, say, YouTube.
It’s a minefield because obviously it depends on where you are in the world as to what laws actually exist and are enforced, but if you put it on YouTube (for instance) what usually happens is the record company identifies it, puts adverts on your video or video page, and lets you “get away with it”.
It depends on where you are in the world as to what laws actually exist and are enforced…
But in this instance you’re not actually making money from it, which is why it’s OK (the record company is, because it gets the revenue from those ads). If the tune blows up, the record company or companies may talk to you about releasing it, but rest assured they’ll get the lion’s share of any profits. Plus they’re getting revenue from the clickthroughs on those ads plastered over your upload, too.
So anecdotally you won’t get in trouble for doing this type of thing, but I don’t live where you are and I’m no lawyer, so do anything you choose to at your own risk!
By the way, try and put a mashup on SoundCloud, and if you get spotted by a record company that wants to take action, it’ll just get removed (or they won’t let you upload in the first place).
What’s your experience with doing this type of thing? Have you ever got in hot water putting sample-based remixes or mashups on YouTube, SoundCloud or anywhere else? Please share your experiences in the comments.
Now go to:
4 Easy Steps To Making Your First Ever Mashup
5 Reasons Why DJs Should Make Mash-ups (Not Mixtapes) To Get Bookings
Why You Shouldn’t Post Your Mixes On SoundCloud
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I use MixCloud for mixes.
[ link ]From personal experience, and what I know happened with other people, it really depends on the label/publisher/artist who’s music you’re sampling and what you intend to use it for.
Back in my newbie days before I knew jack about copyright laws and that kind of stuff, I produced a remix with a very short sample from a movie in it, stuck it on a website just for a bit of fun…got served with a C&D about a week later from the pretty well known studio (not mentioning any names here).
A few months later I remixed another track, although this one was from a small underground label. The guys from the label listened to it, and even got the original artist to check it out. They didn’t care about the fact I’d sampled it, and thought it was cool to here another interpretation, told me if they did a remixes release they would use it (which never happened).
It’s pretty hit and miss from what I see though. Not sure about how mashups work as it’s not really my thing. I know other people that produce them, and the main problem seems to be they have 2 or more tracks from different labels, one might be cool with it, but another might not.
A couple of things to point out though…
Some people will tell you “if you use a samples under x seconds it’s cool”…this isn’t true, I know one guy who got into trouble for sampling a single snare drum hit (no idea how the label found that out, but they did).
The bigger the label/publisher is, the more likely they are to want to flex their muscles over it.
If you’re uploading your tracks to SoundCloud or whatever, don’t make the track downloadable. Leaving the legal issues aside, if you make a killer remix track and the label/artist dig it, they’re not likely to release anything that’s been a free download in the past.
[ link ]I use Mixcloud and love how they deal with the legal aspect. You have to provide a tracklist, all music is streamed, and treated as if radio. Artists get their fare share due to agreements with copyright institutes.
And yes you can’t download it, but for me knowing I support the people I play is worth it.
[ link ]lol
[ link ]sorry my ”lol” was suposed to be a reply to another comment!
[ link ]very interesting subject though!!!!!
I put up a crap pretty lights mashup on soundcloud and i havn’t been sued yet. also im living in constant fear that Will Iam is gonna come after me for putting beatgrid on Dirty Bit and uploading it!
[ link ]this is a real tuff one! because technicly you cant sample 1 sec of anything without permition, no matter what you are making!! so you should not be able to upload it aswell! as far as how to get permition i think it has to be thru the label if it is going to be released, as far as getting it personally, i wish i knew how! but with so many labels beeing against it, i wonder how hip hop is still alive, seen how that whole genre was basicly just samples… dont see me as a hater on this one, i love hip hop! and even on house and nu-disco and lots of other genres of course, its all about re-editing oldies or are just sample based! some give them away on soundcloud or whatever, other otherwise sell it with theire name, wich i dont see a problem with, seen how some do work a lot on it, just legaly i dont understand how its possible! just one exemple: i think it was redman or eric sermon that had to pay 1000$ to sample one marvin gaye song… then you have ”matthew kyle – i want marvin” also with a marvin gaye sample but he’s way to underground to afford that (i think).. another one is an producer called ‘jazzmopper j’ all his tracks just are some tracks with a house groove on it! he does great stuff but you never see the originals guy name on the title! and he isnt even sampling, the whole song is literally playing! i really dont understand how that can be done, legally! i do know this is one hell of a subject… but im pretty shure that mashups will fall in the smae category when its time to get suid!
[ link ]Here’s what I’ve seen based on observations.
Lawyers cost money, and a label (even a big one) will first complain and give a “cease and desist” to the producer before suing. That, or they’ll complain to the site and have the file pulled.
The ONLY time you’ll get to the point of sued and paying fines is when you’re SELLING THE TRACKS. That’s where you always have to be careful. I remember two instances where producers were sued, but they were SELLING VINYLS of their stuff…
SL2 VS The Beatles – Jude On a Ragga Tip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULjE_bQvM4Q
Sade – Pearls (House Remix) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWYnCX5rTac
I personally think this music and culture we do is about rebellion. It’s like when a hacker breaks into a big company or the government, and instead of jail he’s offered a job with a massive salary…because he’s that good. I’ve seen many times where that illegally made remix ended up being purchased by the label because they could see it would be a hit.
Make your remixes. Make your tracks. Post them on Soundcloud and send them to the blogs that post stuff. Take chances. The worst that could happen is a cease and desist. A lawsuit will only happen if you are selling the tunes or won’t remove them when asked.
You never know…you just might end up getting noticed and suddenly landing a deal on a label.
[ link ]I hate soundcloud. I could never upload my mashups there, even tho other people at my level can? I dontget it. mixcrate is where its at
[ link ]You may want to check out Subsonic. Host your own mixes for your own personal use.
[ link ]here’s a trick for you guys. i’m not sure if it’s legal but i use it all the time to get past youtube/soundcloud content detection:
[ link ]after creating a mashup, create a special version just for uploading on the ‘net. (you can chop the intro/outro so that it’d be shorter)
this is the trick: insert a white noise track under the mashup/remix, from the beginning till the end. put it around -20db. human ears won’t notice it, but the content detection/algorithm would and won’t flag it as illegal.
(you can search the internet for a free white noise mp3, or use you favorite softsynth to generate one)
after that put a download link for the ‘clean’ version in the description and voila!
lol what crazy science is that?
[ link ]While I’ve never produced any mash-ups, or sampled based music (to date), I did run an internet radio station for unsigned hardcore and metal artists.
Rule of Thumb: Anyone who is unsigned, and most indie labels and artists are just looking to get the word out about their music.
They’re thinking in terms of “free promotion”. If an indie label that doesn’t have a huge marketing/promotion budget is going to succeed, they’re going to take all the free promotion they can get. That doesn’t even have to be said about unsigned artists. I’ve never come in contact with an unsigned artist who said “No, you can’t play our bands tracks without compensation”. In fact, they’re all usually so grateful that someone else likes their music and are happy to work with you to promote it.
Unfortunately, when it comes to bigger labels it really is hit or miss because the business end takes over and at that point, it’s all about the green.
[ link ]I got a warning from soundcloud when I was uploading an hour mix, I had to emigrate to Mixcloud where I was more welcomed, altough mixclouds interface is a tiny bit less file friendly to upload, they only accept mp3 format.
[ link ]The likelihood of being sued is tiny. Don’t stress it – in the real world pretty much all electronic musicians break copyright laws constantly.
It’s standard practice, no one cares, and you’d be crippling yourself to attempt to do otherwise.
[ link ]so when you go register your songs… should you just say that you did it all? because technicly if you’re sampling thats when you let then no…
[ link ]them know (lol)
[ link ]There is a new site called legitmix.com that allows producers/remixers/mashup artists to sell sample-based music legally. They created a software that searches the purchaser’s computer for the source tracks used to make the remix – if they own them, they can legally buy the remix for whatever price you set. If they do not own the source tracks, they buy them along with the remix, making the purchase legal as well. Its actually quite brilliant.
Here is an example of a track I recently put up on there –
http://legitmix.com/Call+Me+Maybe+Vs.+99+Problems+(Scott+Melker+and+Friendly+Greg+Popped+And+Screwed+Remix)/mix/646/Carly-Rae-Jepsen-gets-Chopped-and-Screwed,-then-mixed-with-Jay-Z.–Popped-and-Screwed!.-Format%3A-(0-B).-Length%3A-03%3A22
In my experience as a remixer/mashup artist/DJ, I have confronted basically every situation described by all of you and more. In the past year, I have used soundcloud almost exclusively, before finding legitmix. I have had a number of tracks removed from soundcloud and have received warnings. In the past, I have had C&Ds from record companies etc. Its a jungle out there – legitmix seems to be the only way that I have found to sell legally.
[ link ]