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STOP ROYALTY WARS

Recently, the famous Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado charged the musical royalties from the remix “Lovezinho” by Brazilian funk singer “Treyce” after it blew up on all social media, reaching more than 24 million streams on Spotify and over 21 million views on the artists’ Youtube channel.

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**In Brazilian Funk culture, it is very common to use melodies from existing and well-known songs edited with funk beats, rhythms, and lyrics.

**American hip-hop artists are also kings when using old-school samples. The page that best shows this is @songsandsamples on Instagram.

Check out this 2004 JAY-Z track using a 1940s sample from Brazilian legend “Marcos Valle”:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpisTF3j1ZE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

The electronic music scene's latest trend can also confirm this: major artists like the globally beloved German DJ collective Keinemusik are known for using Afro-Latin American influences in their music production. As a Brazilian, I love to see our culture being revived in different genres, expanding horizons, and influencing new generations.

Keinemusik Crew making history in Rio de Janeiro
Keinemusik Crew making history in Rio de Janeiro

We can also say that Brazilians are one of the main influencers when it comes to dancing on TikTok 🤪

@xurrasco021 was responsible for the music phenomenon after his dance became a hit in the Brazilian carnival and worldwide, reaching millions of likes on the social medias to his +3.1M followers.

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Even Nelly was impacted by the hit and also did the dance on TikTok, increasing even more the song's reach and engagement.

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Shortly after the viral post, her Sony producers went after Treyce's managers, asking for part of the royalties earned from the hit 🤑

Was it all a strategy to get her slice of the cake?

Maybe it's part of the recipe…

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Anyway, it’s a win-win situation if the law is followed correctly:

 1. Xurrasco021 pumps up his profile even more on social media.

 2. MC Treyce earns more money for having the majority of the % on "Sequência de Lovezinho" royalties.

 3. Nelly receives a slice of the music’s royalties for the use of her melodies in a new music hit, pushing bigger awareness to her original song through the Tiktok trend.

This practice shouldn't be complicated and bureaucratic, but incentivized!

The recycling of former music samples is an old and natural practice for human nature. It is also immensely beneficial to engage new generations to past creations, reactivating and reviving multigenerational music.

https://twitter.com/EthFreds/status/1634258988433809440?s=20

What if all these tracks were ON-CHAIN?

It's simple: no more bureaucracy.

If Nelly had “Say It Right” available on-chain, Treyce and/or her producers would be able to acquire ownership shares of the original song and create her own hit song over the melodies of its chorus.

All this automatically, without breaking any law, and easily sharing your royalties with the original music producer, rewarding everyone!

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A music industry where all music and compositions are on-chain would definitely be a wonderful scenario to live in.

But for this to happen there's still e steep way beyond us. Not only the root of the music system would have to adapt, since publishers and distributers, but also the consuming experience culture.

This is a more complex debate for next time…

Thanks for reading my first entry, subscribe to see more! Love feedbacks <3

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This is an article solely with the purpose of informing different views of the industry and incentivizing independent artists from Latin America.

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