The controversies of the music industry

The music industry is a very iffy business. Creations and innovations sometimes come from other people’s works but this can cause problems. In recent cases people are being sued for plagiarizing the work of other’s, the problem is when being inspired by someone else’s work what are the boundaries when it comes to plagiarism? When creating a sound it gets complicated because music is measured in numbers so no matter what instruments being played the movements or the feel stays the same. Manipulating sound and making it original is a challenge because when making music you play off of feeling so basically there will be similarities because most humans express feelings with the same emotions. In recent cases Marvin Gaye’s family sued Robin Thicke for his song “Blurred Lines” l, for being to close to Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it UP”. I remember the first time I heard “Blurred Lines” I was in the studio with my producers one of them instantly said they Sampled Marvin Gaye. Robin Thicke admitted that he was a fan of Marvin Gaye and draws inspiration, but the question is, where do you draw the line when pulling inspiration?  

Making music is not the only components that are important in a recording artists career. Making videos are just as important as the song because the visual represents your message. In 2011 Rihanna was sued for her S&M music video, she was accused by David LaChapelle of copying his photographs to create the music video.  So making sure that your song isn’t too similar to someone else’s is just the beginning your music videos are at stake also.

Lastly and one of the most important is the royalties cases, so many people get sued for not paying producers after they use their beats and make money from it. Lil Wayne was sued for $20 million by “Lollipop” producer.  The producer Darius Harrison aka Deezle claims he was not given his fair cut of the song’s sales. These stories are all to familiar in the industry, people write songs and make beats for artist then when its time to get paid its an issue. All to many times people are quick to take what they need to make their music but slow to pay for the works they received. 

There are a lot of problems that you can run into in the music industry so I warn you people dot your I’s and cross your T’s.