Do you need to “earn” the right to remix someone’s music?

[Tone Deft]

it's about the music not the person that makes it.

The point I am trying to make is that a lot of the remixes done are crap, the "artists" only do it to get name recognition, not becaouse it's good music. Take for instance Lady Gaga Bad Romance (with 355 million hits on youtube) and remix it and throw it on youtube. Even if your remix is half ass you will still probably get a million hits or so overtime which is 950k more hits than you would get if you did not attache her name to it. So no, I don't think its about the music.

Now, before you say why would people do this? Youtube some big hit and you will find at least 5 shitty remixes of it.

OK. I guess the disconnect is that I don't use freaking youtube hits and comments as a measure of success. nor do I listen to Lady GaGa or most pop culture shit music. if you're tired of shit stop looking in the toilet.

seems like you're bailing water on the Titanic. the wave of appreciation of utter crap arts in the modern world is astounding. I suggest that you distance yourself from it, perhaps study it but you're wasting your time if you think you can stop it.

years ago a coworker of my wife did this same thing, titled a song "blah blah vs. Madonna" he gots tons of hits and I think even won something. the song was total out of tune crap. the only thing it told me was that the web site sucked and I didn't look at the rest of the content. this guy got a big head over it but everyone was laughing behind his back.

or... sell out (lower your standards for fame), join the wave, make shit music and get that youtube fame you're so envious of. don't like it? don't solicit the three ring circus of shit.

[penepasta]

Who would want a reputation for making rubbish remixes of popular music?

A lot of DJs/"Producers" (If you can even call them that...) in my area seem to think that's the only point of what they do, it's really sad. It's always been a popular trend, but I think it's getting worse.

Don't get me wrong,I for one welcome our new Youtube overlords! I think that emerging technology and communication mediums are a great boon for quality music. Amateur artists are essential to a healthy music culture, so long as it they have passion and a desire for quality. I think the idea of a "Right to remix" is grounded in narrow-minded, elitist thinking. There is, unfortunately, a grossly disproportionate amount of crap to the amount of good stuff floating around...

[oddstep]

Who would want a reputation for making rubbish remixes of popular music?

A lot of DJs/"Producers" (If you can even call them that...) in my area seem to think that's the only point of what they do...

I can't believe that anyone sets out to make rubbish... I suppose that as long as no one permanently trashes their reputation through pushing halfbaked stuff online it doesn't matter. I'm thinking that a lot of youtube flotsam is basically people feeling a bit excitable about this new thing they can do. I remember when I first got a flanger, I thought it was amazing - if youtube was around then I would have definitely played everything through it and uploaded onto youtube.

[ollyb303]

I'm still struggling with the idea that any number of YouTube hits on a shit remix can give a musician any kind of credibility... I don't think that being on par with "charlie bit my finger" is where most musicians are aiming.

To me, if 100 people buy my record or pay to download my track from Juno because it's good and they like it, that's worth more than a trillion hits on YouTube because I put "gaga" in the title of an awful remix.

[heasymo]

If it is for personal use, there is no problem, but when you want to use remixes on stage or use it on a record.. be carefull!

[ollyb303]

If it is for personal use, there is no problem, but when you want to use remixes on stage or use it on a record.. be carefull!

Wow. Your words of wisdom make me want to buy a home theatre system for some reason...

[oddstep]

"yeah, yeah, this 10k rig, 3000 remixes of lady gaga, 'ironic' clipse mashups and the sealed cd of amateurish daft punk parodies.... this was all for personal use. I had no intention of playing this in a public place"

[rasputin]

it's about the music not the person that makes it.

however cool your friend might think he is there's someone cooler, and there's someone cooler than that guy and so on. your friend needs to get out more and experience the world.

TD, you've been around long enough to know better.

If you're talking about success and money, your first line is completely false on the face of it. Major success has a "hard work and talent" component but (for instance) if you're a overweight and homely woman, I don't care how phenomenally talented you are, you aren't going anywhere in the entertainment biz, period. If there are exceptions they are so rare as to just prove the point.

If you're doing music for the love and passion of it, fantastic. I think that's what motivates 99% of the people in this forum. If you're doing it to become rich and famous, you need to watch every episode of (e.g.) American Idol and study the careers of Madonna and Lady Gaga as if they were Ph.D. level courses.

How many instrumentalists, remixers or DJs have you ever seen on American Idol?

Also as far as grammar Nazis go: I know many people contribute for whom English is not their first language, but if a person is just being lazy with their writing I'm not going to spend a lot of time trying to interpret what they might be meaning. That doesn't make me a Nazi; you can write whatever the fork you want, but the fact that you write it does not automatically make it worth reading.

This is the big problem in the online world today: nothing is allowed to be any better than anything else.

YMMV.

[Tone Deft]

I didn't get you at first but I know you're a talented Live user worthy of respect.

I think we're looking at it from quite different angles. I'm addressing who should be able to remix an artist, as in who's got the right credentials.

I get that a Pro would have to study the game and play it to help their success. I didn't quite get the connection to the original point.

agreed on grammar Nazis. I hope that wasn't directed at me. I always try to drop in that caveat of "if English isn't your first language, props, if it is, then... ugh."