Make it New: Sampling & Authorship

Make it New: Sampling & Authorship

In today’s music industry people are constantly trying to find a new sound to grab people’s attention and become the next big thing. There’s always something new that is being created, or something new that just hasn't been heard. One way people, artists, and record labels are attracting new people is through sampling. Sampling can take a classic beat or song and make it even more entertaining. Super Mash Bros tends to sample bits of popular music making a whole new song with clips that are mixed together. Sampling in simple terms is when a part of a song is taken and is reused as an instrument or sound recording in a whole new song. 

The big question is; are they actually making it new when they sample music? What about authorship? Sampling seems like it should or would be illegal in most cases, and most of the time it is illegal because artists won’t sample the music legally. Sampling is a very tricky thing because it can really screw a producer or artist over if they do not do it correctly.

Here are some guidelines to legally sampling music from the website

http://www.indeproducer.com/2012/03/what-is-copyright-clearing-samples-for.html :

“ "Sample clearance" refers to the process of getting permission from the owners of the copyrighted music. Sampling music requires two sample clearances: 

·                     Clearance from the copyright owner of the SONG -- typically the music publisher

·                     Clearance from the copyright owner of the MASTER RECORDING -- typically the recording company

Find the Music Publisher 

In order to get these sample clearances; you will first need to find the copyright owners of the song and master recording. The music publisher is typically the easiest to find; so, start there. Performing rights organizations, like Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) or the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), collect money for public performances of artists' music. Therefore, these organizations are a good place to locate the publisher. 

So chances are, you are probably sampling illegally. However, you more than likely have no chance at all at contacting the publisher, nor the record label. You also have a good chance of never getting caught using that sample. So it is a double-edged sword if you ask me. The bottom line is, a law is a law and what you may be doing in your music is illegal. ”

 

 Although it is illegal to take a beat or part of a song if the original artist claimed authorship, there are times where an artist will obtain authorship for a song but won’t specify exactly what they want to copyright.

According to http://www.musiccopyrightnow.com/How-To-Copyright-Songs-Authorship.html , in order to copyright your music correctly you must,

“ First, define the nature of your Authorship. This is not particularly hard, but most song copyright information sources on the net gloss over or ignore this important subject.

You write and record a song - that's great. What do you own? What are you the author of? What parts of "your" authorship are exclusively yours?

In most cases, there are four parts of a musical work in which you can have an authorship interest:

1. The Music

2. The Lyrics

3. The Performance session where the song is RECORDED

tion and/or Engineering of the Recording

The last two, recording and production are curious. Read on to discover how to copyright songs AND keep the engineer and the studio from obtaining authorship interests in your work. Don't unwittingly give away interests in your work.

Let's say you come up with some great tunes and dynamic lyrics. Next you assemble some musicians and run down to your local studio so the world can hear your work.

What have you got?

Parts 1 and 2 above, the music and lyrics, are the underlying work. Those are yours and you can Register your copyright interest.

Parts 3 and 4, studio performances and engineering, relate to something defined by the U.S. Copyright Act as a "sound recording". A copyright interest in sound recordings can be Registered, just like the underlying work.

The guy you asked to come to the studio to play bass and the engineer you asked to twist the knobs may have authorship interests in that sound recording of "your" song. It's not the end of the world, because they have no right to Register a copyright in the underlying work. And, if you've Registered your work, you can shut them down and make them pay dearly if they use your song without permission and/or without paying for a license. But why give them any piece of your copyright? ”

In conclusion, new music has to be very careful with both sampling and getting authorship. Gaining authorship for a song is quite the process, and you have to make sure to specify when gaining authorship what exactly you want to have control over. Also, when artists sample music they have to be really careful they do it legally or don’t get caught. Many artists and producers often get sued for using other artist’s music without permission. Vanilla Ice actually sampled the beat from “Under Pressure” in his hit song “Ice Ice Baby”, but Vanilla Ice never gave credit to Queen and David Bowie until confronted years later. This is a perfect example of sampling incorrectly and not making it new!