Hi
When you remix a song without the authorisation of the author, do you have:
1/ the right to publish it ?
2/ the right to release it ?
3/ what about the rights on all this
Thanks 
i’m no expert but i’d say you pretty much have no rights if the author hasn’t given you permission. your only option would be to put out a bootleg
Two big differences here
Legally no you don’t have the right to publish/release/give it away
Morally/what’s acceptable is to white label it (vinyl) or give it away (digital).
If its a simple refix like you just added some drums to first 16 bars to make it easier to mix don’y do either as its basically stealing music and giving it away. If its a completely different idea from the OG mix then you will rarely have issues.
Thanks guys very nice of you !
One of you said “give it away (digital)”… You mean i can release it on beatport but not on a physical record ?
Lets say i made a total new remix, with total new idea and style but we do can identify the samples.
What are my options precisely here in that case please ?
You can find this stuff pretty easy with google… (sauce)
- There is no “50 second,” “5 second,” “8 bar,” or "1 bar"
rule to being able to legally sample music you don’t own or control the
rights to.
Another common myth echoed across the
indie music scene is that there is a “50 second,” “5 second,” "8 bar,"
or “1 bar” rule that permits you to legally sample music you don’t own
or control into your own music creations. This is a very dangerous myth
that needs to go away. When you sample any portion of someone’s music
without proper authorization, it gives rise to a valid cause of action
for copyright violation. The owner has every right to sue you, and if
they did the right thing by timely registering their copyrights, then
you could get hit with a pretty severe lawsuit money-wise. If you want
to obtain the rights to sample music properly, you have to clear the
rights to the music composition copyright, and if you want to use the
sound recording, then the sound recording copyright has to get cleared
as well.
As for the concept of “fair use,” it’s a
defense that is used as a shield, not a sword to copyright
infringement, and it’s a pretty difficult defense to prove in court.
Sampling under fair use must be for the purpose of criticism, comment,
news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. Further, the court
will also weigh the following four factors to evaluate whether there was
an actual fair use: (1) Purpose & character of the use – was it for
profit or non profit and educational? (2) Whether the work been
published already?(3) The amount and substantiality used; and (4) The
harm done to the original copyright owner.
Long story short – don’t sample without
securing the rights. More often than not, music sampling by musicians is
not protected by fair use, and even if it is, you still have to pay to
defend your argument in court. Your best bet: create your own original
music.
- Even if you don’t plan on selling your music/mixtapes with
uncleared samples, and you just distribute them online/offline for
free, it’s still copyright infringement.
Your copyright (both at common law and
under federal registration) gives you as the copyright owner 6 exclusive
rights – a bundle of rights if you will. Those being: (1) The exclusive
right to reproduce your work; (2) The exclusive right to distribute
your work; (3) The exclusive right to perform your work; (4) The
exclusive right to display your work; (5) the exclusive right to make
derivatives of your work; (6) The exclusive right to digitally transmit
your work. While some artists might not make a fuss or even bother to
contact you if they see that you used an uncleared mashup/mixtape
/sampled song or master recording from their music being shared by you
for free, they absolutely have every right to prevent you from doing so,
and to enforce their rights. Whether its shared for free physically or
online, the law is that only the copyright owner has the right to
reproduce, distribute, and make derivatives of their music.
1 BigUp
Yeah no dont put it on beatport.
Dont put anything on beatport tbh its grim.
as a free DL on soundcloud/bandcamp you will rarely have issues. But thats because the copyright holder prob won’t care enough to do anything. Worst case they ask you to stop giving it away.
Happened to a friend who bootlegged Lana Del Ray, he got contacted by her team when the video went over a million views (and fuck knows how many DLs) saying they were going to discuss the remix. They decided to allow it to stay on youtube and to keep it as a free download, but they could have got it taken off if they wanted.
Cool thanks but one last question.
What if the remix has a lot of chance to be extremely beneficial to the original artist himself ? Should i contact him ? To say and ask what exactly ? What would you do if you was in my this case guys ?
Sure send him/her the remix, if its special might make it official/give you stems to clean the mix up.
Unlikely to happen in most cases though.
They probably won’t see it as beneficial unless you’re reeeeeeeeeally famous, or at least more so than they are. Which I doubt you are, so they probably won’t even respond.
Honestly, just stick it on soundcloud or send it to some smaller youtube promo channels. That’s about as good as it gets for unsigned producers.
- no
- no
- see above
but it’s fine if you do it on vinyl because whitelabel ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Cool guys thats really noce of you !
Lets say im pretty sure it will have some relative impact for some reasons,…would it be better then to contact the artist to sign a deal to obtain the right to release my remix on my own label or something like that from a most efficient point of view ?
If you create a derivative work, both parties own the copyright, meaning you would also need the original artist’s permission to reproduce it, assuming they released it under a commercial license.
If you did try to have an online distributor release it, they would say no.
You can try.
Who’re you quoting?
Also, he seems very sure of himself. For all we know it could be Burial.
1 BigUp
Thanks so much for your help guys really !