Major Label Introduce Sampling Amnesty – But What Does It Mean?

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Major Label Introduce Sampling Amnesty – But What Does It Mean?

As of September 1 2015, EMI’s Production Music division have introduced a six month amnesty for sampling. This is a really interesting and innovative concept from one of the largest labels in the world, and a surge forward in an industry that many see as scarily non-progressive in terms of technology and ownership in music today.

Let’s break it down.

What is a sample amnesty and who is behind it?

EMI Production Music is an archival and content creation division of Sony/ATV. Over 60 years, the library faction has built to represent more than 40 international labels, disseminating music (much of which is specifically created for media sampling) and related services to film and television clients. Within this, they maintain ownership, composition rights and more pertaining to more than 125 000 titles. Essentially a massive sampling powerhouse, they have been sampled by everyone from Mark Ronson and Jay-Z to Fatboy Slim and Jurassic 5.

The sampling amnesty is a window that stays open for six months. If you use a sample from their catalogue, you have six months to claim that you’ve done so – obviously you’ll face legal action if you don’t come forward within that time.

How does it affect me?

Once you contact the company, they will create a specific licensing deal pertaining to your particular use. This is done using up-to-date market rates, designed to prevent further exploitation.

The interesting – and progressive – part of the whole deal is that once you lay claim to a sample, you will not be held financially accountable for any past uses or sales – regardless of how many years it was going on for. This is probably going to be the most important factor in the campaign’s success: previously, many samplers would not want to come forward, in an attempt to prevent legal and financial ramifications. As there’s no retrospective charges, this is no longer an issue.

The amnesty is not only designed to maintain a better hold over what’s already been sampled, but to encourage future sampling, performed within legal and ethical standards set within the industry. Basically, they want you to sample – but they want you to tell them about it, too.

Why does it exist?

Label divisions like publishing have been incredibly slow to catch up to the world of sampling and technology. Whether you’re looking at electronic music as a whole, the extensive sampling used in hip hop, pop and more, it’s clearer than ever that forward-thinking means of record-keeping and maintenance – as well as the obvious financial channels – are required.

Using an amnesty such as this can help to increase speed of licensing and new music publication, as well as helping to prevent sticky and damaging legal disputes.

Speaking to The Guardian, Alex Black, global director of EMI Production Music explains that “I was thinking about how electronic music and sampling had been around for over 30 years.

“Everyone you meet in that sampling and record production community loves the KPM series. They’d tell me they have albums from the catalogue and have used a cheeky sample here or there. It was born out of that.”

Catching “cheeky samples” as he calls them, can be a difficult and painful experience for the publisher. “It would be good for everyone if we ran an amnesty to allow people to come forward and clear those samples without the fear of financial penalties for past royalties,” he says.

What’s the catch?

The amnesty will not include ALL music under Sony/ATV, so be careful that what you’re sampling is specifically under EMI Production Music, due to licensing capabilities. EMI PM owns both the master and publishing rights, meaning the whole sample can be approved in a “one-stop clearance,” Black says.

The amnesty can’t really do anything to help current or past cases, but it came make future issues far more straightforward and manageable.

“With the rise of the home producer and the fact that you don’t really need a record label to release anything, [sampling is] a DIY part of the business,” says Black. “We are not viewing the amnesty as a way to catch out people who have intentionally not cleared a sample. It’s more about raising awareness rather than trying to catch anyone out.”

You can read the full sample amnesty terms and conditions here.

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