this is my big & silly doubt:



imagine i wanna release a cd made with music by me... but some songs have music sampled by other artists... what should i do then?

do i have to request the permission? thats kinda obvious but i was wondering how artists like Fatboy Slim and DJ Shadow have sampled music all their life... respect.. i love their music (more DJ Shadow)

but how do they do?

do they have to pay a lot? (how much $)

and what happen if that 'sampled-artist' is dead?



thats my silly doubt... be nice.. im starting with this since 2005 (makin music... nothing serious yet).. and also my english sux



*waitin the reply*

Yeah, in theory you need permission. If you're going to make any money at all, you definitely need permission - a cut of the profit you make will go to the owner of that sample's copyright.



If you're not making money from it, it's probably not worth the effort. Would be nice to credit the sample in the CD insert though

Fatboy got in trouble a few times because he didn't clear the samples. You need permission from the original artist and/or the record company. Better pull the samples and come up with something else.

The way copyrights work is that whoever is the owner of the copyright, usually the artist if that artist is still alive, has an attorney out looking for violations of the copyright. Depending on the usage and the medium, you'll either get a cease & desist letter from their attorney, or simply a letter threatening legal action if you don't comply with some sort of royalty payment arrangement.



However, there is a chance that you using copyrighted work without permission will go unnoticed. If you're willing to take that chance, go ahead and do it, but should your work turn out to become widespread and profitable it has a better chance of being noticed, obviously.



So, yes, go ahead and find out who is the owner of the copyrighted samples you are using. If you can get their permission in writing, you're good to go.

Sting still makes approx. $2000/day in royalties for "Every Breath You Take". Makes me sick to know he makes $700,000 a year still for doing nothing.

There are artists like Amon Tobin who use 60 to 70 samples in a song. Most samples are very short and can't be recongnized, but there are like 5 to 10 samples a song that can... I think for samples easily recognizable you have to ask/pay to use them.

and what happen if i re-edit a sample?.. not exactly but same melody

is that going to be a problem?

melodies are protected too... It's the same problem

Just reproduce the melody yourself. Not that hard.

MadPooter Escribi�:

Just reproduce the melody yourself. Not that hard.

word...



but what if u heard an awesome melody and u wanna copy it? :x



i think that all u got to do is re-make the melody and change some notes.. so nobody will notice X-D

jOsSse Escribi�:

MadPooter Escribi�:

Just reproduce the melody yourself. Not that hard.

word...



but what if u heard an awesome melody and u wanna copy it? :x



i think that all u got to do is re-make the melody and change some notes.. so nobody will notice X-D

You can do that, but be careful. I can't quite remember the cases, but I've been aware of at least a couple major ones where litigation took place because of similar chord progressions.



Obviously unless you happen to have a hit, you're unlikely to get in trouble even if you sample an entire track outright, but still not really worth the risk.



I present the Rolling Stones versus The Verve case as a primo example of "oh, fuck, I guess we should have cleared that first."

Yeah, there was another incident back in the 80's when Ray Parker Jr. got sued because his Ghostbusters song had the same melody as Huey Lewis and the News' I Want A New Drug.



Don't ask me why I remember that... I would be a real geek if I could remember the outcome of that case.



Anyway - not to be forgotten is the Chemical upheaval when our boys were accused of lifting the drums from Tomorrow Never Knows to use on Setting Sun. Or something like that, I don't know all the details. I think it was the Beatles' people that hired a musicologist to set the record straight.

Darkstarexodus Escribi�:

Obviously unless you happen to have a hit, you're unlikely to get in trouble even if you sample an entire track outright

You mean like Daft Punk? :P



(NOT an invitation for the Daft Punk haters to hijack this thread!)

chemicalfan Escribi�:

Darkstarexodus Escribi�:

Obviously unless you happen to have a hit, you're unlikely to get in trouble even if you sample an entire track outright

You mean like Daft Punk? :P



(NOT an invitation for the Daft Punk haters to hijack this thread!)

X-D Oh no! You have mentioned "They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named"!!!



(I'm not a hater!)

Hahahahaha X-D

I remember seeing somewhere in Wikipedia, saying sometimes you are allowed to use parts of a piece of music without having to request for permission under the freedom of information act.

woolv Escribi�:

I remember seeing somewhere in Wikipedia, saying sometimes you are allowed to use parts of a piece of music without having to request for permission under the freedom of information act.

It's those kinda things that give Wikipedia it's reputation for containing so much b******t information. That is not true, and neither is the "you don't need permission to sample anything shorter than 30/10/5/1 seconds". It's got a lot of small-time artists into a lot of trouble.



Something worth mentioning though, is the amount of 'royalty-free' samples used by top notch artists like the Chems. For example, some of the drum sounds (if not the whole loop) in Chemical Beats are royalty-free, and I've heard a few other examples by smaller, but still established artists - mainly in the breaks world, as that's what I listen to. I've heard a sound in their songs, and thought "I've heard that somewhere else", only to find no credited samples mentioned.

DJ Shadow Escribi�:

Since your records are made almost entirely of samples from vinyl, do you fear lawsuits?



I?ve tried to be na�ve. I mean, I?d rather be na�ve than jaded, I guess the expression goes. It does cross my mind in the sense that, "Well, I?m about to use this. Hmm. Maybe I should try and switch it up a little bit, or make it a little less obvious. Or maybe I should keep looking for something a little less obvious." I think that?s healthy. When I was in college, I?d be sitting in class writing down ideas, and then when I finally was able to do it, two hours a night or whatever, I had to just shut the door, block everything else out, and let the ideas flow. And I?ve tried to keep that?I still have all my equipment in my house, and when I close the door, I?ve disciplined myself over the years to let all exterior pressures dissipate. It?s total concentration ? concentration on making quality music. And by that nature, I?ve had to say, "So-and-so might get upset about me sampling this, or the label might not want me to use blah blah blah." But I?m still not used to being in that position. I?m used to making underground records.

so he pay for the copyright only if sb caught him?

theres 2 types of music copyright - publishing copyright, where the licence is held by the composer of the piece and mechanical copyright, which is the actual recording of the piece and is either held by whoever played the music (if they're canny) or by the record label if its part of the performers contract.



publishing and mechanical copyright royalties which are paid by the PRS and the MCPS respectively go to whoever hold the licence for that particular copyright.



if you replay a sample then the mechanical copyright would go to you but the publshing rights would still go to the original writer - unless you claim that you wrote it, in which case the person who originally wrote it would have to prove that a) you had already heard the piece and b) that it is musically identical (musicologists are usually hired for this)



basically, unless u make any serious money out of a sample you ve used the chances are the owners of the licence arent going to sue you. look at schooly d (sampled for block rockin beats) - i remember seeing an interview with him and he said he never recvd anything for his voice being used in BRB!!



also if the sample is mangled so much its unrecognisable how are they gonna come after you? if its unrecognisable its unrecognisable!



so i wouldnt sweat it to be honest with you - unless youve blatantly nicked a massive hook and have a 'hit' i dont think your gonna get in that much trouble ;)

ok thx mippio!



clearer than water :D