Remix copyright

[Amadeus]

Hi there! 

I just made a remix of 2pac's song "how do you want it". I only used his vocals from the song, and all the music in the remix is made by me (completely original music by me). 

I wonder if any of you know if and how I can legally upload this remix to soundcloud and YouTube, considering the copyrights on his vocals? I recon that giving credit in the description isn't enough? I wonder who to contact asking about permission to upload this remix since it''s 2Pac. 

 

I appreciate your help and tips! 

 

- Amadeus :-)

[Amadeus]

Thank you! This was very helpful :-) 

 

Do I still call it a remix when the only thing i use that is copyrighted is the vocals from the original song? 

 

I had never heard the Original soundtrack before i remixed the song, so my track came out completely different than the original..

 

Just wondering...:-)

 

And again, thanks for replying!

 

-Amadeus

[Amadeus]

This is great! Thank you very much! :-) :-)

 

- Amadeus 

[john]

A remix counts as an adaptation as an arrangement of the original. The original words and melody are intact (which is in essence the song), though it may have structurally changed, and certainly will have changed in terms of instrumentation, harmony and perhaps additional melodies. As such it is likely to be classed a derivative work, in copyright terms.

 

Permission should be obtained from 2pac's publisher. Often people will only do this for commercial releases, but it should be done for all such works. Licensing it would likely be tied to commercial release terms, however publishers vary differently as to how they view non-commercial releases. They may approve it for release on non-commercial terms but limited to certain platforms... such as YouTube, if they have an agreement with YouTube for advertisement revenue. This means that if you start earning through advertising, the advertising for that song would go to them (in essence) or a portion of it. They may say it cannot be released at all.

 

I should say I am not a copyright expert or lawyer

[Amadeus]

Thanks for your answer! I'm learning stuff here:-) 

 

 

[MikeRobinson]

Identify every piece of material that anyone remotely could consider to be "their property."

 

Now:  "show utter respect to their Intellectual Property (IP) rights," to an obsequious degree.  Contact the representative of every single IP-rights owner, and document(!) every step of your so-called "due diligence."  Keep a thoroughly detailed record of exactly how you determined who the potential owners were.  Then, exactly how and exactly when you contacted every one of them.  Exactly how they responded, and exactly when.  How you followed-up with anyone who failed to respond, until every single one of them did.

 

Only then do you publish your piece ... anywhere.

 

You have both "covered your a*s .. I mean, bases," and you have shown that you were aware of everyone whose rights you might possibly have touched-upon, and pro-actively did something about it.

 

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.™

[Ray888]

On 21/06/2017 at 6:15 PM, Amadeus said:

Thank you! This was very helpful :-) 

 

Do I still call it a remix when the only thing i use that is copyrighted is the vocals from the original song? 

 

I had never heard the Original soundtrack before i remixed the song, so my track came out completely different than the original..

 

Just wondering...:-)

 

And again, thanks for replying!

 

-Amadeus

 

You don't have any copyright on the song whatsoever because the lyric and melody is encapsulated in the vocal. At best you can claim the music arrangement if it is different enough from the original.

 

Note, You will still need to obtain permissions from the inheritors of the song copyright but at the moment you are on very dangerous territory and should not even be considering putting it up on youtube or any other platform unless you obtain that permission. Not even here on songstuff.