Radio interview sampling legality....

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billytk03z

billytk03z

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Does anyone know the legalities of sampling sound bites from radio interviews.... I have an original beat and I took various samplings of a particular artist from different radio interviews and used those as lyrics/verses in the song. No actual music was sampled only public interviews from guests on SWAY, Breakfast club 105.1, etc.... Do I need permission for anything or are these interviews public and free.... I only used words and phrases, etc...
 
Radio broadcasts are subject to copyright laws - they are an expression of intellectual property and are never considered to be in the public domain, if for no other reason than that the station has paid for the content it broadcasts either in license fees or interview fees or announcer salary.

The same is true of network news broadcasts and footage - someone owns the intellectual property rights in the images and the audio that accompanies them.

So thumbs up for an innovative way to gt a free session from a rapper/artist, but thumbs down on ever being able to use the track for commercial gain or other purposes

As always: check with a lawyer of your own to understand the finer details of intellectual property law and how it applies to your specific situation....
 
If it is published or broadcast you better believe they own rights to it.
 
bandcoach said:
Radio broadcasts are subject to copyright laws - they are an expression of intellectual property and are never considered to be in the public domain, if for no other reason than that the station has paid for the content it broadcasts either in license fees or interview fees or announcer salary.

The same is true of network news broadcasts and footage - someone owns the intellectual property rights in the images and the audio that accompanies them.

So thumbs up for an innovative way to gt a free session from a rapper/artist, but thumbs down on ever being able to use the track for commercial gain or other purposes

As always: check with a lawyer of your own to understand the finer details of intellectual property law and how it applies to your specific situation....
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Im thinking I may just release the song regardless with the sampled interview bites and my original beat. I believe the attention the song will get will be much better than any kind of profit or monetary gain. Although the beat IMHO is extremely hot the sound bites of this particular artist Im clowning is going to kill it..... I will release it here first before I upload to Youtube and send out.....
 
It's not whether or not there will or won't be "monetary gain" that you have to worry about; it is monetary loss that you should strongly consider. Lawsuits can be expensive, and you can't even say "I didn't know" at this point, as you've been given sound advice, and in public, no less...

GJ
 
have to reiterate what gj has just said
- you've been told it is not a good idea to do it
- to continue and pursue this is foolhardy, as losing the inevitable lawsuit is gonna hurt you
- anyone who suggests that the artist will not sue for illegally using their voice is just not considering the big picture
- their voice is their meal ticket and when that is compromised (their exclusive use of their voice), they will sue to remedy the situation
- the likelihood of them coming to you and offering to redo the parts for real (for a fee) is slim to none
 
bandcoach said:
have to reiterate what gj has just said
- you've been told it is not a good idea to do it
- to continue and pursue this is foolhardy, as losing the inevitable lawsuit is gonna hurt you
- anyone who suggests that the artist will not sue for illegally using their voice is just not considering the big picture
- their voice is their meal ticket and when that is compromised (their exclusive use of their voice), they will sue to remedy the situation
- the likelihood of them coming to you and offering to redo the parts for real (for a fee) is slim to none
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In actuality, all I would have to do is contact the radio station who owns the rights to the interview and obtain permission from the radio station as I would think they would own the rights to the broadcast and all that it entails. I sampled from power 105.1 breakfast club so I would probably have to get permission or release from them and so on.
 
No.

If you are the producer of that program, you own the content (either by explicit contract or by default).

If you are a third party (which you are), you would need permission from the content owner (producer/radio station), and also the artist/interview subject him/herself. Think in terms of music copyright; there are at least two copyrights in any released recording-- the underlying song content, and the recording itself. You also have to consider what copyright law calls "derivative works."

Think in terms of photos and graphic images; if someone snaps your picture during a news event, they don't need your permission to submit that photo to the New York Times, the local newspaper, or their own news-related blog or website. But, if that same photographer wants to use your image in an advertising campaign or on a cereal box, they'd better get your permission and poney-up some dough, right?!?!??

This (your project idea) is basically something that can't be done without opening you up to major legal exposure, and at minimum, a not-so-friendly cease & desist letter.

But, whatever...

GJ
 
rhythmgj said:
No.

If you are the producer of that program, you own the content (either by explicit contract or by default).

If you are a third party (which you are), you would need permission from the content owner (producer/radio station), and also the artist/interview subject him/herself. Think in terms of music copyright; there are at least two copyrights in any released recording-- the underlying song content, and the recording itself. You also have to consider what copyright law calls "derivative works."

Think in terms of photos and graphic images; if someone snaps your picture during a news event, they don't need your permission to submit that photo to the New York Times, the local newspaper, or their own news-related blog or website. But, if that same photographer wants to use your image in an advertising campaign or on a cereal box, they'd better get your permission and poney-up some dough, right?!?!??

This (your project idea) is basically something that can't be done without opening you up to major legal exposure, and at minimum, a not-so-friendly cease & desist letter.

But, whatever...

GJ
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gotcha... understand completely.... thanks
 
"Naw playa, u no, I'm jus 'puttin' her on!' Puttin' her on tracks, on wax, on t-shirts, hoodies, bumper stickers, flyers......"

GJ
 
billytk03z said:
Im thinking I may just release the song regardless with the sampled interview bites and my original beat. I believe the attention the song will get will be much better than any kind of profit or monetary gain. Although the beat IMHO is extremely hot the sound bites of this particular artist Im clowning is going to kill it..... I will release it here first before I upload to Youtube and send out.....
Click to expand...

Copyright infringement goes far beyond monetary value or earning. Your song doesn't need to earn money to get a lawsuit, seriously. The sample doesn't belong to you and what goes around comes around. Step your game up and call the radio station, don't be the kind of producer thats scared to call people and talk to them about using their music. Who knows, you may be able to land radio support for using the sample if you just call. Radio stations love have material for the shows, everyone knows that. So give them content for their audience and the stations will show support. Steal from them and they could bury your reputation.
 
ProducerJC said:
Copyright infringement goes far beyond monetary value or earning. Your song doesn't need to earn money to get a lawsuit, seriously. The sample doesn't belong to you and what goes around comes around. Step your game up and call the radio station, don't be the kind of producer thats scared to call people and talk to them about using their music. Who knows, you may be able to land radio support for using the sample if you just call. Radio stations love have material for the shows, everyone knows that. So give them content for their audience and the stations will show support. Steal from them and they could bury your reputation.
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I just scrapped the project but I did post the raw track in the showcase just for the hell of it... I didn't even bother to eq or clean up the interview samples... The track I threw together in like 10 minutes but it sucks that I wasted over many many hours of listening to interviews sampling, cutting and editing lol... I did however shoot an email over to power 105.1 because most of the sampling came from the breakfast club interview...
 
That dude on Judge Mathis is a loser. $200? Lol. Why wouldn't he have just worked out everything to begin with? Not to mention this is an artist he had contact with who was accessible. It's not like an artist you'd never be able to gain the attention of without getting a label exec on the phone with them.

Back to the OP, I'm a firm believer in creating music any way you want to when the end result is nothing more than hot music. An underground cat making a mixtape, throwing his work around for local exposure, ect, no problem. The issue comes when people say "this is gonna be big". If your goal is worldwide exposure, you need your paperwork right. Period.

Alot of guys in this thread will say otherwise, but I see nothing wrong with sampling anything for a showcase. You're not gonna want to pay the thousands of bucks it takes to clear all that crap for something you're more than likely never gonna see a dime from that will fly under everyone's radar. Dudes telling you to do so aren't making much sense to me.
 
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Not sure what's wrong with that. Should that guy have paid out tens of thousands to legally do this? Not to mention, Kanye would never let this get cleared, lol.
 
It's just against the law, D4P. Whether or not we think that there's "anything wrong with that" is (way) beside the point. It's certainly a free country (well, that's a whole 'nuther thread, anyway), and everyone can make their own decisions. But it is against the law, and a lawsuit could come of it, so it's important to know that, because if he gets busted, "I didn't know" won't work.

GJ
 
deRaNged 4 Phuk'dup said:
Not sure what's wrong with that. Should that guy have paid out tens of thousands to legally do this? Not to mention, Kanye would never let this get cleared, lol.
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I appreciate all the comments on this subject.. Obviously I decided to scrap the project due to the aforementioned reasons and issues. Since that clip with Sway and Kanye was linked I thought I would just show you guys where I was going to go with this project. Obviously had I intended to be serious with this project I would have cleaned everything up and put more thought and precision in the arrangement but here it is in a quick chopped raw form. Im not looking for feedback but just to give you guys an idea of where I was going with this had I put more time and more effort

 
rhythmgj said:
It's just against the law, D4P. Whether or not we think that there's "anything wrong with that" is (way) beside the point. It's certainly a free country (well, that's a whole 'nuther thread, anyway), and everyone can make their own decisions. But it is against the law, and a lawsuit could come of it, so it's important to know that, because if he gets busted, "I didn't know" won't work.

GJ
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You're absolutely right, but the hip hop head in me can't accept that as millions of others cannot. Big Sean just released the biggest "real hip hop record"(respect the quotes)in a long time that would have never existed if we "followed the law". Any hot mixtape to ever come out would not have existed if it was all about "following the law".

Because of the nature of this site, I'll gracefully bow out, I can't talk about people who don't buy their music and software while supporting theft of any kind. :cheers:



I will say as big as this got, I'm sure a lawsuit is on the way, lol.
 
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Yeah, and that's what I meant, I guess. NO disrespect to Hip-Hop, sampling tradition, the art of sampling, DJing, any of it. I've actually got a couple of tunes with uncleared samples myself, that I haven't released yet and I'm trying to figure-out how to do the right thing as "financially painlessly" as possible...

All I'm saying, is that it is what it is (the law), and I constantly see uniniated/noob people throwing up objections like "But I'm not making any money" or "I didn't know" or "They won't bother with lil' old me, will they?" It's just such an uphill battle to make people aware of even the basics of copyright. I'm not saying "don't sample," I'm just saying "sample with complete understanding and awareness," because if you don't, it's quite possible that it will cost you.

GJ
 
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