The musician behind one of the most sampled six seconds of music in history has finally been paid.
The Winstons frontman Richard L. Spencer has received compensation for widespread use of ‘the Amen break’ via a crowdfunding campaign.Taken from the song ‘Amen Brother’ by The Winstons, the six second breakbeat has been sampled countless times in hip-hop, jungle, drum ‘n’ bass and techno. Listen to the original sample below:
Despite its nonstop usage, neither the copyright owner (Spencer) nor the performer (drummer Gregory C. Coleman) never received any royalties or clearance fees for the sample. The pair never sought royalties but Spencer has expressed that he considers its usage to be plagiarism. Coleman sadly passed away in 2006 leaving Spencer as the only member of the band entitled to compensation- this finally came in the form of a GoFundMe campaign called ‘The Winstons Amen Breakbeat Gesture’ set up by Martyn Webster, a DJ involved with the UK breakbeat hardcore scene. The campaign called for donations from musicians who have used the sample and fans of the music it helped create, raising a total of £24,000. Today the Facebook page for the campaign posted the below video of Spencer receiving his check.
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Firstly, sorry for the delay in updating this! It has taken some time to tie everything up, and to cut a long story short, transferring the money from the UK to Richard in America caused some big headaches with my bank being a bit awkward! Anyway, for everyone who donated, here is Richard with his huge Gofundme cheque :)People have asked me if the campaign could be opened again, or left open indefinitely. I have spent a lot of time asking (begging!) Gofundme if they would be able to change the gofundme account I set up originally so that the money went directly to Richard, unfortunately they say that this is not possible at all. Maybe something could be setup directly to Richard's paypal or similar, I will look into it with him.As much as I would of loved to of presented him the cheque/money myself, unfortunately at the time it was not possible to get to America due to work and home commitments, hopefully one day it can happen!Once again, thank you to everyone who donated, the whole campaign became more of a success than I could ever imagine!(Click HD when you start watching the video)
Posted by The Winstons Amen Breakbeat Gesture on Tuesday, November 10, 2015
