I have always been of the opinion that the only tangible product of my career is my intellectual property. I protect my ownership of such with all I have got. It seems that in the music world, especially in the hip hop world, the same thing is the case. This week there was an interesting article about a Chicago based hip hop duo called Flosstradamus, who created a new song “focusing on their own compositions” and licensed it to a label who released it as a 3 song EP for free on some of their websites. There plan always was to release free music, and then compile a set of those songs and sell the CD’s. They do not include anything with samples in the music for sale, and feel that if they give the songs away for free, they are not breaking copyright laws. BUT NO!!! Of course it is a violation of the law. It doesn’t matter if you make money off of the song, you are still stealing someone else’s copyrighted music. I think thaqt it was great that a Netherlands based electronic musician named Dutch Master sent a cease and desist order to the record company, who were surprised that they were made to take the song down, because, of course, they weren’t making money from the song!!
The one thing that the writer of the article didn’t mention- and to me the most ironic part of the discussion- was this:
Flosstradamus, who were “focusing on their own compositions” used a sizable chunk of the melody from Dutch Master! Is this what they mean by their own compositions? WOW, maybe they should learn how to write some of their own songs from start to finish.