Content Producers: Derivative Works Are Your Friends

Thing #2 on the NB 23 Things to-do list was to add a post to our blogs. Sorry: I just don't stop talking :-)

One of the widgets I added to bling up my blog is a list of the top 10 tracks that I have listened to the most since starting to use Last.fm around seven years ago (it's over there --> on the right).

It struck me as I looked over the list that two of the ten songs are ones that I first became aware of through derivative works.

A "derivative work" is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted.

Track 4 on my list, Coldplay's Viva la Vida, is one that I was introduced to via Norwegian Recycling's mashup Viva La Viral (available as a free download on Last.fm). (Yes, I know that Viva la Vida was played all over music radio ... I'm one of those hard-to-reach consumers who, on getting a new radio alarm clock, tune their radios to the local public radio news station and then never mess with it again.) I enjoyed the mashup enough seek out the source material, enjoyed that as well, and ended up purchasing the album.

Norwegian Recycling's Soul of Fireflies is similarly how I became familiar with Train's Hey, Soul Sister and Owl City's Fireflies and went on to give both those artists my money.

Track 9 on my list, Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts's Exile, is one that I became of aware through a fanvid. Specifically, a Doctor Who (9th Doctor) fanvid of the same name by Wolfling:



Having completely fallen for Kate Rusby's voice, I thereafter sought out multiple albums by her. I'm fairly certain that I would never have encountered her work otherwise. (Unlike Viva la Vida, her work has never been featured as a question at Tuesday Night Trivia.)

A close friend is quite fond of vidding, including making her own videos, so there are quite a number of tracks in my music library that I only ever encountered because they served as the background music for fan videos. (Slightly odder, there are also television shows and movies that I have only watched because I enjoyed the music videos that their fans made about the shows. Equilibrium, I'm talking about you.)

So, content producers and artists, don't freak out about derivative works: sometimes, they will drive consumers back to the original source material and bring you more fans.