Copyright

Stealing bits of other records or 'sampling' is a big part of the music indutry particularly in some genres such as hip-hop which began by patching together loops and recognisable melodies or hooks from well known songs.  Some artists have become recognised for their ability to re-energise songs and the hook is the recognition of a sound from a previous recording.

 Jay Z

Annie


One could argue that this is creative use of melodies embedded in popular culture and new meaning is being created.  It shows a regard for the original and popular culture is always referring to existing texts.  You could also say that originality is difficult in the modern day so what harm is there in using recognisable songs and updating them for modern audiences.


Many artists are happy to have their work sampled. particularly if they get a credit and 1-5% of the royalties.  It also raises their profile if the covering artist is big.
Consider the push for the band playing in Paris on Friday night to have their song at number 1 at Xmas

The Eagles of Death Metal covering Duran Duran's Save a Prayer. Who will get the royalties ?

Read this article about the concert in Paris on Friday.

The bigger the artist is the more likely they have lawyers and their estate can fine you.  The Rolling Stones are one of the most litigious groups.  Samples from 'The Last Time' menat that the Verve had to give all the royalties to The Stones despite creating a wonderful new song.

I don't even thing it is that close to the song.  I was surprised when I first heard this case.  I can hear the inspiration but I don't think it is a sample.


Try to find some other examples. 

Try The Beastie Boys / Public Enemy. This quote from The Atlantic magazine raises some of the issues.


‘You suggest two influential hip hop releases—the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique and Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet—would be financially and bureaucratically impossible to release today, due to their heavy sampling.
Right. This is something people have been saying for a long time. My co-author Peter DiCola and I were able to do some economic modeling to test the hypothesis.
We figured out—song by song, sample by sample—how much it would cost to release each record. Sticking with the example of Paul's Boutique: there are about 2.5 million units sold of that record. Incidentally, a lot of the samples on Paul's Boutique actually were cleared—but they were cleared at a time, 1989, when the industry didn't really see the value of sampling yet, so the rates for copyright clearances were much lower. Today, the rates they'd have to pay would make it impossible. Based on the number and type of samples in that record, Peter figured out that Capitol Records would lose 20 million dollars on a record that sold 2.5 million units. Fear of a Black Planet is similar. ‘

Can sampling still be done or has the cost of clearances made it prohibitive?

And finally here is Kanye West saying goodbye to Biggie Smalls

He had to give the publishing royalties to Sting as it was a cover of The Police song, 'Every Breath I Take.'

Where do the boundaries lie in covering / sampling an existing track?

What are the copyright rules?

Use the article that I have provided to write a blog entry about the rules of copyright in relation to your own recording using your own examples.   Use this to inform your pitch.