Do I Have To Purchase A Song To Remix It

Where do DJ's source their stems for remixing?

SKIO has plenty of vocal & instrumental stems for remixing.DJ’s and producers come to SKIO to find legit stems from artists and labels at a variety of levels from scrappy basement producers all the way up to the biggest names in music.We have acappella & instrumental stem packs you can use to remix tracks from all of the most popular genres including: pop, EDM, electronic, hip hop, dance, R&B, chill, soul, bass music and more!Whether you are looking for female/male vocal stems, acappellas or instrumental stems (drums, bass, synths, guitar, percussion) you’ll find them all on SKIO!Check out our Instant Remix marketplace where you can get a license to legally remix a song (plus original stems) in 1 click.Enter our remix competitions with trending pop, R&B, soul, electronic and dance artists and get access to their amazing WAV stems.Head over to SKIO today, grab some stems to remix and make some magic!

How do DJs chose which songs to remix?

The term "hit" is relative. Based on record sales? Downloads? DJ circulation? In the commercial market place, a remix was adopted by pop artists to increase record sales in the underground and club space. In the underground world (the real world) a remix was an interpretation of a producers idea of the song, which catered to his crowd and dance floor.Now, Rihanna doesn't need David Guetta to remix her songs to have a hit, however some kid producer wiz who adores Rihanna might have different interpretation of her song and decides to remix it. The remix becomes a "hit" in underground Dance floors and reaches Rihanna 2yrs later. That's how remix hits are made.

Where do you purchase layered tracks from pop songs to use for remixes (using popular artists like Selena Gomez)?

What you’re asking for are called the “stems”. A company I owned created a game that remixed stems, and we had two Selena Gomez tracks. We were a tiny company, so it is possible to get stems, even for independent projects.You can license stems for a song from the record label or person who owns the master recording. You’ll need to negotiate a publishing license as well. Independent artists will often own both their masters and their publishing, and are usually easier to work with for licensing stems. Big artists like Selena Gomez are going to have their publishing and masters handled by two different companies.With stems, you have an added complication when licensing publishing rights. Unless your name (Tiesto, etc.) can bring additional sales, big publishers are often hesitant to license stems for remixing because your remix is a ‘derivative work’, which gives you partial ownership over what is essentially their song. We were able to overcome this objection by surrendering all publishing rights for any derivatives created.Another source for stems are remix competitions. If you google ‘remix contest stems’ you’ll likely find download sources. For a while Sony regularly sponsored remix contests and made stems available from known artists.

When you remix a song from another artist do you still need to license it and pay royalities?

It depends on what you intend to do with the remix. If the artist in question has requested you to remix their song for the purpose of issuing it themselves, then you will not require a license for the work, but if you intend to remix the work of another music artist with their permission and intend to distribute it yourself, or you intend to remix without permission and distribute the track on your own, you will need to obtain permission from the artist to use their vocals and any instrumental tracks you borrow for the remix, as well as obtain a mechanical license from something like the Harry Fox agency in order to duplicate your work a certain number of times for sale. Often times, if you want to remix and distribute for free without any intention of charging anyone for purchase, and you have no interest in distributing a physical product, you can. Remember that major label artists often don't have the authority to give you permission, you often have to gain permission from the major record label in question who owns the master rights to the albums and songs.