Jun 6, 2013

In Defense of Gummy Soul and The Art of Sampling Sampled Samples

This landed in my inbox this morning and I wanted to share it with the universe to get some feeedback. Personally, I think Sony is wack for this, but I would love to get some feedback and thoughts from the DJs and producers of the world. - L J

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Dear Friends,

Last Friday, Sony Music sent Gummy Soul a cease and desist order for Amerigo Gazaway's "Bizarre Tribe: A Quest To The Pharcyde".
As owners of A Tribe Called Quest's catalog, Sony is claiming copyright infringement and has demanded that we take the album down immediately or face further litigation for damages.
While less than 3 minutes of the 55 minute Bizarre Tribe experience is Sony owned ATCQ material (you'll remember Amerigo flipped the original sourced records Tribe SAMPLED, as opposed to having sampled their music directly), Sony feels that our project is non-transformative, and is in direct competition with original A Tribe Called Quest material.
Though we are confident that our work falls under "fair use" as defined by the Copyright Act of 1976, (something we explain further in our open letter response , we cannot afford to take on a Goliath like Sony Music. Due to the sheer amount of samples required to create this project, it would be impossible for a label of our size to release Bizarre Tribe through traditional means. Although Bizarre Tribe has always been available for free, Sony is demanding our immediate compliance.
As of now, Bizarre Tribe: A Quest to The Pharcyde is no longer available through Gummy Soul Records. If you would like to get involved, we have provided a few easy ways for you to help.

1. Read and share our open letter response to Sony:
2. Visit BizarreTribe.com to find out more on how you can help
As always, we thank you for your continued support and look forward to bringing you more music in the future. In the meantime, stay tuned and KEEP BOUNCING.

- Gummy Soul


For booking, contactguy@madison-house.com
For all other inquiries, please contact: info@gummysoul.com

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