Remix Hits is a new platform that’s designed to make it easy to legally remix commercially released music. Not only does it enable you to purchase stem files, but there’s also a Kontakt-powered remix instrument called Release, and you can upload finished remixes for distribution.
If that sounds too good to be true, there are several caveats. Firstly, there’s the content: at launch, only a few songs are available to remix, and they’re not exactly representative of what the majority of people are listening to right now.
While there might be some fun to be had from reworking Europe’s The Final Countdown - and TLC’s No Scrubs is an undeniable late-’90s RnB classic - we can’t imagine that many people have been itching to get the stems for Men At Work’s Down Under in their DAWs. We might have that wrong, though.
Remix Hits does promise that more songs are on the way (fear not: Spin Doctors’ Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong is listed as ‘Coming Soon’) and the company also says that it’s working on getting agreements to add tracks by the likes of David Guetta, Steve Aoki, Rihanna, Drake and Beyonce to the site. Whether the requisite licensing deals will be done, though, remains to be seen.
Speaking of licensing, there are also some pretty strict rules regarding what you can and can’t do with any remix that you create. You’re allowed to DJ with it, but if you want to share online, you have to do so via the Remix Hits submission page. Remixes are then uploaded to the company’s official YouTube and SoundCloud accounts, and you can then repost.
Uploading directly to any other service is a no-no, but the hope is that you’ll soon be able to get your remixes on the major streaming platforms.
As you might expect, all remixes are owned by the original rights holders. A remix royalty system is said to be in the works, but, as things stand, it looks like there's no way to monetise anything that you create.
Of course, that may not matter to some people, who’ll simply get a kick out of being able to have these stems in their DAWs. Song Packs cost $29 each, while Release, which runs in the free Kontakt Player, can be downloaded for free.
Find out more on the Remix Hits website.
“An enhanced application that is nonetheless reassuringly familiar and reasonably priced”: Native Instruments Traktor Pro 4 review
"The last 5 or 10 per cent drove me crazy - at one point I had about 130 mixdowns... I’ve come to realise that the perfect mix doesn’t exist": Ben Böhmer on overcoming perfectionism in production
“An enhanced application that is nonetheless reassuringly familiar and reasonably priced”: Native Instruments Traktor Pro 4 review
"The last 5 or 10 per cent drove me crazy - at one point I had about 130 mixdowns... I’ve come to realise that the perfect mix doesn’t exist": Ben Böhmer on overcoming perfectionism in production
