Mashups

Mashups are starting to become more common in the music industry today. Mashups are when two or more artists collaborate and create a new type of sound. One artist can supply the beats while the other artist supplies the lyrics. Mashups are innovative ways to bring the fans fresh, new sounds. Mashups could also be when the vocals from one song is laid over the music from another. Youtube is an app that has many examples of mashups. Youtubers always feature each other on videos without violating the copyright laws. However when it comes to copyright laws, it becomes complicated in the music industry. Record labels and artists always want to protect their music but at the same time, they like the artistic freedom they have to put their spin on another person’s song. In the article 1+1+1=1 The new math of mashups by Sasha Frere-Jones, “Mark Vidler, known professionally as Go Home Productions, explained some other benefits of digital technology to me in London not long ago: “You don’t need a distributor, because your distribution is the Internet. You don’t need a record label, because it’s your bedroom, and you don’t need a recording studio, because that’s your computer. You do it all yourself.” The internet makes it easier for artists to find new sounds that they could put their own spin to and make a profit. Copyright laws online are being threatened by mashups in a sense that music that comes from searching the web does not always have copyrights. I believe that it is not fair that artists don’t always get paid when someone uses their song for a mashup but at the same time, if the artist changes the song enough to make it sound original they should be free to do as they wish. It is becoming impossible to not violate copyright laws online. Even if a regular person posts a video with music playing can get their post taken down because that person does not own rights to the song. The exact situation happened with Jacquees when he put his spin on Ella Mai’s song “Boo’d Up”. Ella Mai made Jacquees take his version of the song down because he did not own copyrights to the song. Copyright laws are needed to ensure that artists get paid for their work but at the same time, artists should be able to use other artists’ songs to create unique sounds and keep their fans satisfied.

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