The issue of mash up and remixes has been increasingly been affecting the music industry in the recent years. The phenomena does not involve the sufficient creativity that colors the musical world, instead, the mash up and remixing are made just too easily. This practice is considered bootlegging the artist activities because they don’t involve skilled and studied piece of work that follows the standards required in the real art. The DJs and other people involved in this practice just copy and imitate the work the original artist who only remains in a worse off situation. Therefore, the home remixing work is considered bootlegging because they does not involve much imaginative and creativity in their production.
As this continues to place a major threat to the other artists, they should effectively develop mechanisms to protect their work from being bootlegged. Thus, the artists and their brands becomes stiff in realizing any of their work sample unless they are sure that their creativity is able raise enough money that can maximize their profit. Those who are involved in the bootlegging from the unauthorized materials should be sued by the owner to discourage unfair competition. To do these the artists should not provide any license to use their imaginative work. The artists should also apply the patent right that protect their piece of work in order eliminate unauthorized artists who take advantage of the creativity of the others.
Although the remixing does not involve quality skills and effort in their creation, this does not mean it is just an easy and cheap work that can be undertaken by anyone. There is a small group of people who are recognized as the true remix artist who uses their imaginative and does not violate the creativity of other artists. Therefore, the music industry has developed recognition of the remix as the emerging trend in industry and identifies the remixing as the new and developing genre. It has been viewed as the democratization of imagination and creativity and the demystification of eh creativity and authorship process. This has resulted to even DJs becoming their own right pop stars and even uprising over the legitimate artists. Although the music and recording industry worries about the unauthorized application of copyrighted work, it is embracing the bootlegging as a natural evolution of the digital world. Therefore, the industry is issuing licensing to the true remixing artists who meet all the standards required and limit their exploitation of other peoples’ ideas.
In my point of view, demolishing the foundation that is made from this phenomenon may not necessarily the music industry’s best option. Although not in legal way genre like hip hop was formed from the copy of existing music in an innovative way. Therefore, if the industry has decided to put restriction on the sampling in earlier years, the industry’s most popular genre could not have made their way to the market. The hip hop stars such as Public Enemy and Beasties boys could not have been recognized today due to clamping down of samples. Therefore, the industry’s most effective measure would be to let this music genre to prosper in the industry. With the development of computers and software new stars are borne to enjoy the benefits of the advanced technology as well as entertaining the community. The results may bring to rise of new discussions but significantly more fun will be enhanced in the industry.
Works cited
Lessig, Lawrence. Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. New York: The Penguin Press, 2008
Rojas, Pete.. "Bootleg Culture”. Salon.com, 2002."
http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2002/08/01/bootlegs/print.html
