What constitutes an вЂњofficialвЂќ remix? Usually this means either the artist or label has directly contacted you and asked you to remix a song they own, or youвЂ™re participating in some sort of remix contest where the owner of the original work has released stems online and asked people to submit their own remixes.ДЄs long as youвЂ™re creating an official remix, the likelihood of you running into legal trouble is pretty slim (although itвЂ™s always good to keep a written record of any communication about the agreement, just in case.) Where official remixes get more tricky, however, is in determining who will hold the copyright to the derivative work that you create. Because of this, official remixes are much easier to pull off legally than unofficial or вЂњbootlegвЂќ remixes.

In order to record a derivative work, you technically need to obtain permission from the rights holders of the original work вЂ“ namely the artist or label who owns the master recording, as well as whoever owns the publishing side of the song (usually a publishing company, or in some cases, the artist themselves). In essence, youвЂ™re combining two legal entities вЂ“ the original song and your new, remixed version вЂ“ to create a sort of hybrid entity called a derivative work. When you make a remix, youвЂ™re not creating an entirely new work, since youвЂ™re basing it off previously recorded material, and youвЂ™re not creating a cover version either, since remixing implies that youвЂ™ll fundamentally change the way the original song sounds. Why? When you create a remix, youвЂ™re creating whatвЂ™s legally called a вЂњderivative work.вЂќ We all have an obligation when we use music for anything other than listening to it by ourselves for enjoyment.Д¬reating a remix is a much more complex legal issue than simply using a sample in one of your songs.

Dj remix song maker