Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COLIN MUTCHLER RELEASES NEW “PREMIXED” ALBUM

Acclaimed “Open Source” Web Artist Releases Creative Commons-Licensed Album Featuring Global Collaborative of Remixers

San Francisco, CA – August 9, 2006

Colin Mutchler thinks there’s a multi-billion dollar industry in giving music away for free, and he’s betting on his new album to prove it.

Before heading out on his celebrated Free Culture tour to universities and media organizations in 2005, Mutchler released free a cappella tracks of song fragments through the popular remix site ccMixter.org, explicitly “premixed” (prepared for remixing) for producers to build on his work. With each track primed with a Creative Commons license that encouraged other musicians and artists to remix and re-release the work non-commercially (as long as credit was given), the tracks generated a tremendous response from the ccMixter community.

One year and more than 50 remixes later, Mutchler is releasing a full-length album of the best remixes plus two bonus versions of previously released songs. Entitled Premixed, this groundbreaking compilation features tracks produced by global “mixters” from North America, Europe and Japan – only one of whom Colin had ever personally met before collaborating. While major artists like David Bowie, Trent Reznor, and others have invited fans to remix their albums, the Premixed album is a first in that it would never have existed if it weren’t for the collaborative work of producers putting the pieces together legally over time.

The lessons of the last year for Mutchler have proven both humbling and inspiring. “Remix and mash-up culture is huge, but how will these artists get paid when the legal issues are still unclear? Premixed shows that compelling music can be legally produced by building on each other’s work within the commons, and then releasing the best commercially so producers and sampled artists get recognized.”

Mutchler is perhaps best known by bloggers for the story of “My Life Changed,” his online collaboration with North Carolina violinist Cora Beth Bridges in 2003, which has been used widely as a prime example of the kind of collaboration made possible by Creative Commons (see more info at http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/reticulum_rex/). Lesser known are the myriad later versions of “My Life,” including a sweeping French ballad (“Ma Vie”), a Japanese art video (“My Life Changed Completely”), and the version that made it onto the album, “Our Lives Change,” a trans-continental collaboration from Tryad (producers from Seattle, Ohio, and Japan).

Inspiring more than 15 remixes in a matter of weeks, Mutchler’s spoken word manifesto “Language of My Reality” spawned everything from a synth-pop dance remix to a dub reggae slow jam from a German producer which ultimately made the cut for the album. The dub version of “Language of My Reality” hit #1 as the most downloaded track at versionist.com, one of the best known and largest reggae communities on the web. Another highlight is “Castle of Serenades,” a reflective remix produced by Pat Chilla the Beat Gorilla, whose work has been featured extensively on UPN’s America’s Next Top Model.

Visit Colin Mutchler’s site, http://colinmutchler.com/, for information about how to listen to and purchase Premixed.

About Colin Mutchler

Hailed by Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig as “a very important creator in the space of building digital freedoms,” Mutchler has been a leading free culture advocate from the inception of the movement. As the organizer of the “Free Culture, Phase 2” Conference sponsored by American University, Mutchler brought together divergent and prominent youth media artists, software developers, and activists. Having just completed an MBA at France’s prestigious INSEAD, often touted as Europe’s best business school, Mutchler studied business models for open content, and is currently considering his next step.

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001, that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works—whether owned or in the public domain. Creative Commons licences provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators that build upon the "all rights reserved" concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary "some rights reserved" approach. It is sustained by the generous support of various organizations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation as well as members of the public. For general information, visit http://creativecommons.org