Legitmix
Legitmix is a brilliant service for remix artists. It seeks to solve a thorny problem created by the failure of copyright law to keep apace with the Digital Age. Unlike recordings and performances of cover songs, a remix artist must not only have permission from the original artist to create a remix or a mashup… they must negotiate licensing terms with the rights holder. This is usually prohibitively expensive, and when the rights holder cannot be contacted, literally impossible. As a result, most remix artists aren’t legally able to sell recordings of their remixes. Thankfully, it is legal to perform remixes live without permission or negotiation, and this is the main way DJs and remix artists make money. Legitmix allows remix artists to sell their remixes legally without having to seek permission or negotiating a license. The way they do this is incredibly clever: by letting the fan purchase the original source tracks used in the remix, and then providing a proprietary computer file that actually recreates the remix by playing samples of the purchased music. So, for example, a mashup of three songs might cost $5 — $3 would go to the retailer of the original three songs, and $2 (or whatever fee the remixer sets) goes to Legitmix, of which 70% is sent to the artist.
