Insider Interview: Omid McDonald and Booker Sim of Legitmix

By Sarah Polonsky

SoundCtrl caught up with Omid McDonald and Booker Sim, founders of Legitmix, a music technology dedicated to building virtual bridges between those who create using other people’s music, the artists they remix and music fans – in a way that promotes, liberates and profits both remixers and copyright holders. The goal of Legitimix is to be the framework of music.

But how? We’re glad you asked…

SoundCtrl – What made you make the switch from producing medical software to inventing music based program?
Omid McDonald – After my last start-up was acquired, I was looking for an interesting new project. When my friend Booker introduced me to the problem of sample clearance, I saw an opportunity to improve the situation using software. The chance to make a difference is what motivated me to take on this project. While I have had to learn a lot about the music industry, the challenges of running a start-up in the medical or music business are similar.

SC – With your history, what would you say is the secret to a successful software program?
OM - Understanding your client. Most software projects fail because the customers needs are not properly understood. Getting software developers to understand the real-world is not alway easy.

SC – What was your original purpose in creating the Legitmix software?
OM – The problem facing remixers is that their intellectual property is glued in with the copyrighted music they sample. This means that to distribute or sell their work, they have to negotiate a license to the music they use. I thought this was unfair and wanted to create a way remixers could sell their work without infringing anyone’s rights.

SC - How does your program stand out from all other music-based website and applications like Soundcloud and Beatport?
OM – Soundcloud and Beatport avoid the copyright issue by having the remixer certify their content is non-infringing. With Legitmix, the remixer openly identify the tracks they sampled and our algorithm creates digital instructions that consumers can buy to recreate the remix using their copy of the sampled tracks. If they consumer doesn’t have the sampled tracks, they must buy them in order to recreate the remix. This novel approach allows remixers to profit from their work and get the artists the sample credited and paid.

SC - How do you intend to evolve it and keep it fresh?
OM – We recently launched our self-serve interface that allows remixers to submit and promote their work. We are seeing a good number of high quality remixes posted everyday. This fall we will be releasing some cool features to better connect fans with our users. We’ll also be launching several major marketing initiatives with leading remixers.

SC – You were inspired to create this program due to what you saw during Booker Sim’s, your boyhood friend, filming of his most recent documentary “Tragedy: The Story of Queensbridge.” What are your thoughts on the film?
OM – The fact that Booker’s film was blocked due to legal red tape really upset me. It wasn’t that the original artists were against his use of their music but that the system is so complex and inefficient that he couldn’t even get to talk to the right people. So in the end, everyone lost and that made no sense to me.

SC – What was your reasoning behind making this film?
Booker Sim – Ever since I the heard Mobb Deep’s HELL ON EARTH, I was obsessed with capturing the essence of 90s Queensbridge thug rap cinematically. My background is in war documentaries, so Capone-n-Noreaga’s THE WAR REPORT was especially meaningful to me. THE WAR REPORT was “ghetto CNN,” showing the world what was going on in hood, but more importantly in my view, it taught the hood to use street knowledge to deconstruct world power politics. Not only did Tragedy (as the architect of the WAR REPORT) birth this idea of teaching geo-politics to the hood, but his life story provided a great way to report about life in Queensbridge as well.

SC – Your documentary has gone viral throughout the web, being posted on many free-to-watch video sites including YouTube and Daily Motion. Was this always your intention? Why?
BS - I didn’t put TRAGEDY online. French fans did. While my partners and I did sell a version to FUSE, all the proceeds went to cutting the Queensbridge rap out of the film because it was impossibly complicated and expensive to clear the music. Because French laws allow for per-sale incremental music licensing for home video, French fans get to enjoy the real version, which actually contains Queensbridge hip-hop! So in the end, like most projects that fail to get released legitimately because of our byzantine music clearance system, fans still find a way to get what they want, and copyright holders (and music “remixers” like myself) get squat.

SC – Of all the Queensbridge rappers to profile in your documentary, why did you choose Tragedy?
BS – I actually moved to New York in 99 to get Prodigy of Mobb Deep, then at the height of his fame, to star in a screenplay I wrote. I connected with Tragedy around the same time, and learned from people in Queensbridge that he was part of pretty much every great Queensbridge hip-hop moment, from the early Park Jams, to the Juice Crew days, straight through to Nas, Capone-N-Noreaga and Mobb Deep. While I did manage to convince Prodigy to star in my film, I couldn’t raise the $50 million needed to make it. So I grabbed a camera and went the low budget route, realizing the real Queensbridge story was right in front of me, with Tragedy. But had I known I’d never be able to release the doc in the US with actual Queensbridge music in it, I’d never have made the film.

SC – You helped co-found Legitmix with your childhood friend Omid McDonald. What inspired you guys to make this new music technology?
BS – After a rough cut of TRAGEDY was accepted into a bunch of prestigious festivals and offers from major distributors, Omid lent me money to clear the music (which I only recently paid back). After six months and thousands of dollars in legal bills, I was unable to clear the music, so gave up on a premium release (and only released it years later years later, with the music cut out). Omid, coming from a tech background, was shocked to learn I couldn’t release a movie people wanted to buy because there was no rational, per-unit music clearance system in place. Not only was I losing out, but so too were the music copyright holders. He felt technology could provide a solution to the sample clearance problem, and went to work on that solution.

SC – What’s next for Legitimix?
Omid McDonald – We are focused on getting remixers aware of our technology and make the platform work for them. Eventually we will support releasing movies so Booker documentary can finally be enjoyed in its original form.