Modified audio, in search of a win-win model

In the age of social networks and user-generated content, the music industry knows that it must respond to the aspirations of a part of the public, which wants to be able to exercise its creativity on existing tracks: to give just one example, modified tracks abound on TikTok (sped up, chill remix, mash-up…) without the artists being involved.

  • Icon date Published on October 30, 2025
  • Icon author Written by Louise Blas

This new situation inevitably raises questions among professionals: morally, some artists feel dispossessed of their creations, with versions partially credited to them even though they don't endorse the artistic direction! Worse still, some artists find that a manipulated version of their work brings them no visibility, let alone the income they deserve: at MaMA 2024, Prinsess Jorge recounted how one of her tracks accompanied hundreds of thousands of videos on TikTok and Instagram, credited to the users who modified the song… with TikTok paying out a mere €3.42! An original piece of music can spawn dozens of versions, creating just as many problems when it comes to claiming copyright.

 

A new era has begun

But the observation remains: a new era has begun, and opportunities exist to meet these aspirations. Ultimately, we're returning to global trends of gamification and personalization. The public wants to co-create and make songs their own. They're already doing this, with the well-known financial losses for artists and labels, so why not support them in a more virtuous approach? Fan remixes allow a catalog to thrive, revitalize forgotten tracks with a contemporary style, engage the community by encouraging them to experiment with the raw material, and create cross-media promotional strategies.

Startups are working to offer sandboxes for remixing licensed songs, such as Hook, which uses AI to assist content creators, or the streaming platform Audiomack, which wants to put the artist back at the center while offering fans the ability to personalize any song.

The one who can satisfy the public while also promoting the artist and the labels will stand out from the crowd!