Can you take a beat and record over it? I know artist do it on mixtapes all the time, but is it legal.
Not looking to make a profit, just upload the music onto a myspace page.
I have a case full of beats (that date back to 2001) and I can't find the contact info for one of the producers, and I want to use the beat to write a song to and put up on the page. Just to showcase talent, not for profit. I am not selling anything.
Can I do this?
2007-01-27 09:40:35 · 10 answers · asked by tamoi 2 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music
Not sure how it's done? But y not? It is done alot. Have fun.
2007-01-27 09:44:48 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe you can reproduce the beat with your own recording but you CANNOT use the artist's recording of it.
Copyright is an extremely complicated process but in short there are 4 or five different copyrights involved in a single song. One of those protects the actual recording of the song itself- its why so many hip-hop thieves get sued every year, because the sample the actual recording itself instead of re-creating it on their own (probably because none of them know how to play an instrument).
You probably won't get in trouble if it's not for profit but there are no guarantees- every lawsuit is done on a case-by-case basis.
2007-01-27 10:35:00 · answer #2 · answered by D-Zyne 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it's not for profit then it's legal. You need to give credit to the original artist if enough of it is used to be able to identify the original author.
One example of where this happened was Vanilla Ice's "Ice, Ice Baby". He ripped off Queen's "Under Pressure" beat, bass line, and piano chorus for his song. Queen lost the lawsuit for some reason.
As long as you aren't going mainstream with it you'll be fine. Plus, I really doubt that they will come after your MySpace page. Good luck.
2007-01-27 09:46:16 · answer #3 · answered by BrewMan 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
So many of these beats are right out of the box. They are in the drum machines that the groups buy at the music store. Of course they can't be copyrighted. But at this point, copyrights protect nothing except the rights of business guys to steal music and not pay for it for commercials. I wouldn't worry about reusing them for your own purposes.
To paraphrase Woody Allen, "Basically what we have here is a dead art."
2007-01-27 09:44:55 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
it has to be in fixed form, so you need to be write out the tabulature or sheet music style. at that point it is yours to hold and protect. however if someone else uses an identical or similar beat, which they did not get from you, that is not an infringement. it would take an admission of theft on the other party for you to be able to get an infringement judgement. so it might not really be worth your while. most drummers think their improvisations are original, no matter how ordinary it sounds.
2016-03-29 05:25:23 · answer #5 · answered by Lorraine 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you've made a legitimate effort to contact the person who holds the rights and you're not aiming at making a profit, you should be fine.
2007-01-27 09:44:18 · answer #6 · answered by DonSoze 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. They talked about this on the Howard Stern show a few weeks ago and it is legal to copy beats.
2007-01-27 09:43:45 · answer #7 · answered by CctbOh 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's done all the time. Vanilla Ice got away with it.
2007-01-27 09:43:02 · answer #8 · answered by thezaylady 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I asked this question a week or two ago...
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AilUoJrk2c6R0w_tGv.3E0_sy6IX?qid=20070114034524AADg43Q
2007-01-27 09:45:47 · answer #9 · answered by Roan22 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
its illegal
2007-01-27 09:43:44 · answer #10 · answered by Red Bear Cries 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋