Legal Question in Entertainment Law in Illinois
Music mixing & Copyright Infrigement
Is it legal to remix with own words using an artist's instrumental? Say that i got the instrumental for a song, and i want to record my freestyle with it. Is that legal? Do i need permission?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Music mixing & Copyright Infrigement
It depends what you want to do with the instrumental track. This practice is generally referred to as "sampling" and it will get you in trouble for copyright infringement if you intend to make recordings of yourself over the sample.
There are some exceptions, but from your short post I do not think any exceptions will apply to you. If you plan to just record for your friends, you will probably not run into trouble. If you plan to try for commercial success (selling the recording online or on CDs), then you should seek permission.
Keep in mind that recordings from over 100 years ago are usually not copyrighted.
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