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Apple Music secures rights to mixes and DJ mixes; brings EDM artist deadmau5 to Beats 1

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While mixes and DJ mixes can be popular, getting the streaming rights to them can be a complex business – especially when a single mix can contain elements owned by up to 600 different rights holders. But an agreement between Apple and digital distributor Dubset means that Apple Music now has the right to stream many thousands of mix tracks, reports Billboard.

Thousands upon thousands cool mash-ups and hour-long mixes have effectively been pulled out of the underground and placed onto the world’s second-largest music subscription service […]

Dubset will use a proprietary technology called MixBank to analyze a remix or long-form DJ mix file, identify recordings inside the file, and properly pay both record labels and music publishers.

Dubset CEO Stephen White says the company had to overcome tough challenges on both technological and legal fronts …

While the 600 figure cited is an extreme, White says that even a typical mix has 25-30 songs that can involve as many labels plus up to 10 publishers. In all, the company needed to strike deals with more than 14,000 different labels and publishers.

The challenge of identifying all the audio snippets was also far from simple, involving two separate pieces of software to not only identify the tracks but also check the often complex rules that the labels apply.

MixBank checks the recordings, as well as its underlying composition, against the controls and restrictions set by rights holders. For example, rights holders can blacklist an artist, album, or track. They can create a rule to limit the length of a song used in a remix or mix. Rights holders can prevent an artist from being associated with certain other artists and they can control which territories will and will not get the content.

It’s great news for remixers and DJs, who have struggled to be able to monetize their work.

“Remixes are a huge part of our culture – they allow DJs and fans to put our own creative spin on music,” says superstar DJ Steve Aoki. “Apple working with Dubset now is a really simple solution to something traditionally complex, and allows everyone to make money on this content for the first time.”

SoundCloud is currently the largest provider of electronic dance music mixes, and has attempted to use a less robust system to achieve the same goal, but has so far achieved only limited success. This puts Apple Music in line to be the best place to find mixes. Apple earlier announced that EDM artist deadmau5 will be joining Beats 1 this Friday.

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Comments

  1. ninjadude99 - 8 years ago

    This is slightly off-topic but,…

    … when and where was that top picture taken?

    • twelve01 - 8 years ago

      Before Eddie Cue became a baller

    • therazorpit - 8 years ago

      Surprised its in color, usually Apple Music photos are forced to adopt the “artsy” B&W format.

    • David Call (@DavidCall) - 8 years ago

      I have no idea, but that looks like Emma Hewitt, and I cannot imagine a scenario where the two of them were hanging out (when he’s all dressed up, no less). Still, cool to see them together :)

      • Jonny - 8 years ago

        It’s Gwen Stefani/No Doubt and it’s from a ceremony that was honoring Eddy (http://www.lamag.com/theseen/apples-eddy-cue-honored-city-hope/)

      • createoffshorecompany - 8 years ago

        Yeah I thought it looked like Emma Hewitt too

      • proudinfidelusmc - 8 years ago

        I also thought it was Emma Hewitt as well, then I was like, where is Armin Van Buuren? :D

      • PJ (@D00mM4r1n3) - 8 years ago

        My first thought was Gwen Steffani, no clue who this Emma Hewitt person is that everyone keeps mentioning. (full disclosure: i’m old)

  2. Well, one more reason to never bother with Apple Music, they should probably look into renaming it “Apple compilation of irritating noises and sounds” because actual music certainly doesn’t seem to be what they care about.

    • Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 8 years ago

      I’m with you on that. it’s almost not Apple’s fault, it’s the fault of the EDM crowd for wanting that in the first place. All Apple’s doing is getting content for the market that’s already established. The record industry really hasn’t been putting out much in the way of actual music for probably close to 15 to 25 years now. I saw the trend starting to happen in the late 70’s, when rock started to get a little too much “formula” and then when rap started to take hold, and then when things like drum machines first hit the market, then it just got progressively worse. The problem is that Cue isn’t a musician and neither is Cook, they are also going through their mid-life stage and they are trying to be hip and cool and this is the stuff that kids are into and they control the majority of the music buying $$.

      • Jake Becker - 8 years ago

        With all respect………….this statement solely implies the most widely exposed music of today, it has absolutely no reflection of “music”, as a whole, a word which is so large in implication that it perhaps can barely be used without it counting as a misfire. “The record industry” is enormous and supplies plenty, plenty of wonderful music in many many genres. There is no excuse for not being exposed to what is there in 2016….ClearChannel no longer has the same kind of stranglehold over what the average person has the ability to hear..

    • Jonny - 8 years ago

      It’s true. The fine print of this deal said that part of adding this “music” was that they had to remove all kinds of Miles Davis, Chopin, and Beatles music………………

      • domtoliver - 8 years ago

        Where did you read this? Is there a link to details of the contract, because I didn’t see this information in the actual Billboard article that I read.

    • flaviosuave - 8 years ago

      So says Phillip “I Get Invited to Lots of Parties and Am Very Fun At Them” Price…

    • Apparently bringing in EDM means all other kinds of music are being removed from Apple Music?

      • Dil Ribeiro - 8 years ago

        Trying to understand that as well. hahaha…. From now on everything else will be removed..

  3. Arin Failing - 8 years ago

    How is the deadmau5 involvement with Apple Music (specifically mau5trap on Beats 1) not a conflict of interest with Tidal (of which deadmau5 is a part owner)?

    • Jonny - 8 years ago

      Unless he signed some kind of exclusivity deal, why would he be opposed to expanding the number of people he can potentially reach?

      • Arin Failing - 8 years ago

        I guess that’s my point. You’d think (with no facts to back the thought) that signing into a joint ownership of a competing music streaming service would limit the extent to which you can be involved with another music streaming service, short of releasing music. But you’re right, I have absolutely no idea what deadmau5’s exclusivity deals are, if any.

  4. just-a-random-dude - 8 years ago

    Is this live now or it will come later?

  5. proudinfidelusmc - 8 years ago

    I wonder what Kanye has to say about Deadmau5 making his music available on Beats1, especially after their recent twitter beef over Kanye pirating software owned/created by Deadmau5. LOL

  6. Eric Prydz, Skrillex, Deadmau5. Apple is bringing in the biggest players in the game for Beats 1. Loving it. Plus Beats is also doing short programs with outlets like Guardian Music and Pitchfork. Really great work by Zane so far

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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