Communicating remixes and remixers
Remixing an existing sound recording into what is often called a remix is a common way of creating new music. Remixes comprise of significant portions of the existing (“original”) recording, augmented by new material. Remixing is a common way to rework original recordings often seen in contemporary dance music and is also widely used in hip hop and rap music.
There is no one way of communicating such remixes but there are three different common approaches, depending on the contractual relationships between the two artists (the remixer and the remixed artist) and the record company/companies releasing the music:
The remixed artist (i.e. the artist headlining the original recording) is considered to be a main artist whereas the remixer is not;
The remixer is considered to be a main artist whereas the remixed artist ist not; or
Both artists are headlining the remix.
Below are the key data points for these three cases for a hypothetical original recording called “She Loves You” and recorded by Desmond Jones. The remixing is done by Martha Dear. The data below is using the ERN-4 structure but the principle also applies to other DDEX standards.
The three approaches are presented here with the most common case first.
Approach I: Remixed Artist as the main artist
Tag | Data to be provided | Comment |
| She Loves You (Remixed by Martha Dear) | The title also needs to be provided, split into title and subtitle in the DisplayTitlecomposite |
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| Desmond Jones |
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| Desmond Jones |
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| Desmond Jones |
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| any role Desmond Jones performed on the original recording |
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| Martha Dear |
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| Remixer | Plus any role Martha Dear performed on the original recording |
Approach II: Remixing as a collaboration
In this case the remixer is contracted to create a collaboration and therefore (s)he needs to be highlighted as a DisplayArtist – alongside the original artist
Tag | Data to be provided | Comment |
| She Loves You (Remixed by Martha Dear) | The title also needs to be provided, split into title and subtitle in the DisplayTitlecomposite |
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| Martha Dear vs. Desmond Jones | Other conjunctions are also used: “and”, “&”, “with”, … |
| Desmond Jones |
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| MainArtist |
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| RemixedArtist |
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| Martha Dear |
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| Not all record companies signal whether a re-releasing artist is a Remixer if the new recording is deemed to be a collaboration |
| Desmond Jones |
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| any role Desmond Jones performed on the original recording |
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| Martha Dear |
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| Plus any role Martha Dear performed on the original recording. Not all record companies signal whether a re-releasing artist is a Remixer if the new recording is deemed to be a collaboration |
Approach III: Remixer as the main artist
In this scenario the remixer is a main artist on its own. In this instance (s)he is the “brand”.
Tag | Data to be provided | Comment |
| She Loves You | The DisplayTitle composite also needs providing. |
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| Martha Dear |
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| Martha Dear |
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| Desmond Jones |
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| any role Desmond Jones performed on the original recording |
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| Martha Dear |
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| Plus any role Martha Dear performed on the original recording |