Breakbeat "CDs" available on iTunes

[jedilaw]

Don't know if anyone noticed, but there are several sets of breakbeats available on iTunes for $9.99 each. Clyde Stublefield (the original Funky Drummer himself) has one, as do Fatboy Slim (under Norman Cook)and a cat by the name of DJ Swamp. Clyde's sounds really nice.

The copyright status of these discs is a little unclear. Fatboy and DJ Swamp's sets both say that they are intended for producers and DJs, which suggests that they are royalty-free samples. The Stubblefield disc is certainly put together like a royalty-free sample disc, with both loops and single-shot samples. But none of these outright says "royalty-free samples" which they kind of have to in order for you not to infringe copyright by sampling. A license to sample needs to be explicit, and courts read licenses very narrowly to protect the artist from inadvertantly giving away too much.

Anyway, thought some of you might be interested.