After watching these video's and thinking more about copyright, I am surprised at a couple of things. The biggest surprise to me was the fact that there were no copyright laws in place in many other countries around the world. Being a musician and a composer, I appreciate copyright and I believe in the principal of it. In the Good Copy / Bad copy video, one of the people being interviewed made a good point. He said that the artists are not making a of money off their copyrighted works, the recording engineers and people associated with the songs are not making a lot of money, the people making the money are the labels. I tend to agree with that. I know quite a number of composers and they make pennies out of every dollar that the labels sell their music for. Now, don't get me wrong, the labels need to make some profit also, but in a small sense, they are doing just like the big oil companies and making a huge profit with very little expense to their company.
As a composer, I am slightly torn on this issue. In one respect, I would be very flattered if someone took a sample from something I wrote and used it in a mix of theirs. In another respect, I would want to be contacted about it and maybe even offered some sort of monetary value for something that I wrote. I have written music that I have actually sold the rights to and I no longer can collect any royalty for, but the point there is that I had the opportunity to not sell it and take a gamble on making a royalty off of it myself, or selling it and then letting someone else worry about if it helps their product. I remember when we were in Dr. Repp's class and we were listening to Weird Al. I did a little research and found out that he actually gets permission to do a parody from the original composer/artist before he puts it on an album...and he does not pay to use it. As a matter of fact, the band members in Nirvana actually said that the considered it an honor to be parodied by Weird Al because he actually thought the song he was going to parody was worthy of it. So, my question becomes...The people that do the remixing now, why can't they contact the original artist/composers and ask for permission to do a sample of their song? Vanilla Ice learned it the hard way ("Ice, Ice Baby" had a sample of Queen's "Under Pressure"), and so did Ray Parker junior ("Ghostbusters" had a sample of Huey Lewis' "I Want a New Drug"). I put the links in, so you can decide for yourself.
Hey Charlie you bring up some great points about copyright and the mixed feelings that a creator of a work may have when confronted with others sampling the work. You also wondered why those who want to sample don't just simply ask permission of the original artist and I wonder if it is because it seems very difficult to know who to contact. Perhaps it is just because I don't know how to go about contacting an artist or composer to get permission. I am sure it is easier for some one like Vanilla Ice to actually contact and get permission, but where does your average teacher/play director who wants to use a copyrighted piece of music in a play go to get permission?
ReplyDeleteCharlie,
ReplyDeleteInteresting thoughts about the copyright issues from a composer's perspective. Until I saw the information for this week's reading, I think I was in your boat about the situation. Now I think a little differently. For the most part, people that sample bits of famous works, such as DJ's or small time artists don't really make money off the music they created. It is for entertainment for the most part. Big time artists (even small time artists) who stand to make money off of the remix or sampled music should however get permission to use the sample. If you read my blog you'll probably see where I am coming from with this thought. Some artists just don't want to share ... period !!!! Music is meant to be enjoyed by the masses, so why not let someone sample your music so it can be enjoyed by even more people?
Charlie,
ReplyDeleteInteresting perspective from someone in the business. I had often wondered how Weird Al was able to make his parodies. Your comments about the label benefiting most from an artist's music makes me wonder if the transition in the music industry will change that. Wouldn't it be nice if this trend would move so artists are getting the most benefit and are able to choose how their work is shared. I wonder how you felt about the suggestion of charging a yearly fee through a media provider to compensate artists for use of their work. The gentlemen who made that suggestion in Good Copy/Bad Copy seemed to feel it would be profitable enough to make up for the money now being loss due to copyright infringement. If it was an extra few dollars a month on the bill of an ISP it seems like that might be a good solution.
great observations and thanks for sharing your experience as someone who would be most effected by the ever-changing copyright issues scene.
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