Over To You: Is It Wrong to Recreate Mashups?

Our reader Eddie writes: “I’ve heard mashups made by known DJs that are amazing. They are so good that I would’ve liked to drop these off in my DJ sets too. But it’s quite hard and almost pointless to try to contact these celebrity spinners, since they probably haven’t got time, and they don’t really bother to answer back and so on.

“So if you have the tracks that were used for the mashups, is there anything wrong with recreating the mashups youself, for example in a DAW?”

Digital DJ Tips says:

It’s a good question! I remember hearing Sonique play BBE’s “7 Days And One Week” with an acapella of Horse “Careful” over the top in Privilege in Ibiza many years back (a club I was also lucky enough to DJ in), and thinking “I’ve got those tunes, I can do that!” – and indeed I did for many months in my own sets.

You don’t know if the DJ you hear doing great acapella mixes, mashups and so on likewise heard someone else doing them originally, and in all honesty, I think it’s fine to “pinch” the odd mix or two from other DJs, as long as you perform it yourself or make your own version.

Basically, as long as you don’t copy someone’s entire set, or worse, mime to their set (it happens…), I don’t see a problem with it. However, I am sure there are other views and our reads have stories to share on this, so let’s make it an “over to you”.

So, over to you! Is this kind of thing OK? when does it stop being acceptable? Please share your views and stories in the comments.