Having successfully crossed from being a YouTube meme to being a bona-fide chart-topper, Harlem Shake is on the crest of a wave. A wave powered partly, though, by samples of artists now publicly wondering how they’ll get paid for their use. The New York Times has the story, noting that reggaetón artist Hector Delgado and rapper Jayson Musson are seeking compensation for samples of their work on the song. Their attitudes differ though: Musson says that label “Mad Decent have been more than cooperative during this”, but Delgado – now an evangelical preacher – describes it as “It’s almost like they came on my land and built a house”, with his former manager threatening to “turn around and stop that song” if a settlement isn’t forthcoming. On a related note, Harlem Shake’s creator Baauer appears to have just signed for Warner Bros Records, according to the label’s chief operating officer Livia Tortella, talking to Billboard at SXSW. “We just signed Baauer. We don’t know what’s going to happen. We know he’s created a meme video, and this experience online. We know there’s an artist that is starting to still develop, even though this phenomenon happened…”
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Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…