This article is about one DJ's struggle to release a free album composed of remixes of Radiohead tracks from their album "In Rainbows."
But for those who don't know the story of the Radiohead album, here's some background. Radiohead surprised their fanbase when they announced that not only had they finished their seventh album, but they were letting everybody download it for whatever price they were willing to pay. This was revolutionary. Many people tried to say Radiohead was foolish and would make no money off of this, but they ended up making a couple dollars per album that was downloaded - which is greater than to the amount they would have received by releasing it the normal way. This album was available for free download for about two months, then it was taken off of their website for the album's in-store release January 1st, 2008. The album surprisingly sold very well in stores even after hundreds of thousands of listeners already had a digital copy.
A DJ/producer called Amplive from Oakland, California was inspired by this unique "pay what you want" format, and also by the ten songs themselves. He decided to remix several of these tracks and give them away to the public for free in January of this year. He titled his work "Rainydayz Remixes." This is a great example of how musicians can feed off of each other's creativity.
However, after announcing he was releasing these songs, Warner/Chappel, the band's record company, said Amplive did not have the rights to release this album. Their claim was that he did not get permission for this project, and this claim was justified. Amplive had not asked Radiohead if he could create and release Rainydayz Remixes.
The impact of the big record company slamming the door in the face of an independent DJ was evident in many different online blog communities. Many people felt that Amplive should be able to release his remix album since he was not trying to make any money from it. He was just taking what was free to begin with and added his own touches, not to mention appearances by notable emcees such as Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Chali 2na of Jurassic 5. Amplive was told that he was not authorized to release any of this.
After hearing Rainydayz Remixes, I can say that one or two of the remixes are great but, for the rest of the tracks, Amplive took what had been amazing musical compositions and made them uninteresting. But here's a link to the song I think stands out as the best track.
Video Tapez (featuring Del tha Funkee Homosapien)
- Jordan Morsberger
2 comments:
This seems like a very unusual case for remix blunders. Radiohead seemed to be on the side of the consumer, giving their album away for whatever the consumer wishes to pay for. Then their company tries to sue Amplive for, in turn, doing the same exact thing Radiohead intended to do. In the end although Amplive got to produce and make his music free to the public, it still seemed hypocritical that they would consider hurting the very industry that they were putting their bets on in the first place. This just seems like a strange situation with the lines blurring of what is copywrite and what is considered 'fair use'. Although the band did have rights to the song, it seemed unjustified because of their strong support for what people like Amplive do.
While the things Amplive had to go through to get his remixes released may have been a hassle, this can only be viewed as progress against constricting copyright laws. Even though Radiohead has been quoted as saying "f*** you" to the record company business model, that doesn't mean they don't like making money. They have to have restrictions on what people can do and unfortunately Amplive ran into some of those restrictions. However, Radiohead and their company did the right thing by allowing him to release the remixes, and that's one small step in the right direction.
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