Why is remix important

The uncertain legal status of remixes and mash-ups is the source of a great deal of frustration among members of the public. Few understand why the creative remixes they upload to YouTube are automatically taken down or blocked. Many, unfamiliar with the minutiae of copyright law, feel their creativity is being censored. As Professor Lessig observes, the copyright laws that exist today were to a large extent drafted with the principle aim of regulating relations in the professional world, not the activities of ordinary citizens.

In the digital environment, however, this has all changed. For the first time, it reaches beyond the professional to control the amateur, to subject the amateur to a control by the law that the law historically reserved to professionals. The software establishes a link between an existing work and an uploaded work such as a remix. Existing copyright laws do not adequately address the challenges arising from the wealth of amateur creativity facilitated by the tools available within the digital environment.

Canada is one of a few countries, if not the only one, to have introduced into its copyright law a new exception for non-commercial user-generated content. The situation, however, remains less than clear elsewhere. In the United States, the courts are still grappling with the issue, as indicated in Stephanie Lenz v.

Universal Music Corporation which has been ongoing since A few months later, Universal Music Corporation had the video removed from YouTube claiming copyright infringement; an allegation strongly contested by Ms. Universal Music Corp. The question is whether the creation of remixes is being unacceptably impeded.

Remixing helps to promote progress; ensuring the best art, old and new, connects and resonates with today's audiences through evolving channels and platforms with a wider appeal. The opportunity to remix has become democratised through the explosion of technology and proliferation of content platforms and social media. The tools and materials for creating derivative works are readily available and placed directly in the hands of so many more people across the world than was even conceivable at the turn of the millennium.

Today a remix can take an infinite number of forms. It can include anything from simple re-editing and audio mixing of an existing work, to features, collaborations and mashups; through to the total re-imagining of an original work in a completely different style. Although remixing can be seen most prominently in music culture, the same phenomenon applies and is reshaping nearly all art forms around us today. All modern forms of art from photography, books, paintings and graphics through to moving imagery and video have all been subject to this thanks to the power to do so being in the hands of everyone.

We plan to dive deeper into these themes in other blog posts in the coming months. In the modern music business, remixes help artists; climb the charts to No. There are thousands of examples of how remixes enable artists to grow beyond their original work; let's dig into a few of the more thought-provoking success stories She wholeheartedly embraced club culture and has since taken in everything from progressive house, trance, ambient, breaks and deep house, through to the squelch of dubstep and soaring highs of EDM, acting both as a crossover pioneer and stamp of approval for those genres in the mainstream.

She has also become one of the most remixed artists of all time, and remixes of Madonna tracks act as important snapshot portraits of her velocity as an artist and the evolution of dance music that appears to have always driven and inspired her. More contemporary global superstar artists who really understand the power of the remix include Justin Bieber and his team.

There were in fact nine derivative versions that helped evolve and expand the impact of the original work that was credited to Luis Fonsi. These include a salsa rework, a Major Lazer remix, a Portuguese translation, as well as a slightly less official Merengue version by Dominican artist Anthony Santos and an orchestral composition by two Croatian cellists.

Bieber not only created by far the single biggest pop culture moment of , but the most streamed track of all time. It has to date racked up an astonishing 8bn views on YouTube alone, breaking the record for most viewed video of all time more views than people on the planet and that is just on YouTube. What happens when an artist becomes more known for their remixes than originals?

What happens if their remixes all follow an identical path and they end up sounding the same as each other? What happens if the remixes are really bad? Or even worse, what if their remixes are far better than their original tunes and everyone knows it? Maybe a trend has emerged to remix a particular artist or song. It has to be similar enough to recognise the track, without sounding identical. It has to be unique without sounding like a completely new song.

It has to infuse enough of your own style into the remix that the whole exercise is worthwhile. And of course, it has to sound good enough that people will actually listen to it. Sometimes artists release more remixes than originals.