Sampling - a cautionary tale

What was supposed to be a quick comment on a Danish sampling case turned into a pretty complete piece on sampling and what every musician should know!

So if you want my take on sample clearance - get over to the main site!

 

Sample anything from any record!

This has pretty much blown my mind.

A piece of software that you can use to separate all the individual musical parts in any piece of music.

If it's as good as they say it is, this is a whole new level of sampling!

 

 

You can read more on the story at the BBC.

This is what they say the software does:

Hit'n'Mix tears apart MP3s/CD tracks and unlocks their basic building blocks - the notes (vocals/ instruments), percussion and ambient noise.

Great for everyone from wannabe home DJs to mashup pioneers, Hit'n'Mix provides the power to do all the following and more:

Copy, move & delete individual notes

Change the pitch and duration of notes

Add effects like vibrato, slide, automatic harmony and pitch quantization

Watch amazing visuals.

Move the stereo position of notes left/right

Sampling and what you need to know

I was a music lawyer many moons ago and I learnt the way that the music business works.

I wrote a definitive piece on sampling as it then stood (1994 this was), and I have cleared many samples that others thought impossible - I know what I'm talking about!

So do Tunecore in this article, which is a great primer.

One thing that it doesn't cover is the misconception that artists always tell me as if it's gospel. Most people believe that if they use a sample in a track and they get sued for the infringement, the damages that they would have to pay if they lost would be related to how much money the record made. This is NOT the case. There will be factors that determine the damages and these depend on what part of the world the infringement and the case take place in. BUT.....you can be sued for damages that outweigh the profits from the record many hundreds of times - enough to bankrupt you.

My advice - DO NOT have a hit with an uncleared sample!

Similarly, ignorance is not a defense. If you, create a derivative work without knowing or intending to do so - e.g., you put a riff in your work that is so similar as to be seen as a derivative work of another's copyrighted material, but you didn't know about this prior work - you are still infringing on the copyright holder's exclusive right to create a derivative work. However, if you can show that there was no knowing or intentional infringement, the damages will be less than if you intentionally and knowingly infringed.

Read the Tunecore article in full here. If you use samples you should know this!