Hardwell Bootleg Pack Sparks Twitter Drama

You may remember the recent bootleg pack that Hardwell gave away to celebrate reaching 300k fans on Facebook. Well, it seems that not everyone appreciated the free tunes and in turn a bit of controversy was sparked between Sebastian Ingrosso, Axwell, Eric Prydz and Hardwell. The Swedes were upset that the bootleg pack contained some of their tunes and publicly called out the dutchman, expressing their disapproval of his giveaway. Some other artists chimed in with their thoughts on the situation.

NERVO: “@HARDWELL it’s a harmless mistake babe-dont worry yourself.@ the end of the day youve always shared ur music w fans which is what it’s about”

Chocolate Puma: “If @HARDWELL wants to bootleg our tracks he’s very welcome. if we’re lucky it might even end up in the uk chart like show me love ;-))”

Kaskade: “Just seeing this conversation between @HARDWELL @SebIngrosso @ericprydz @Axwell about giving away mash ups and boots. Interesting stuff. I have a lot of respect for all these guys and play the crap out of their records. …so here is my take on it. Typically when I make a mash up I use one of my songs vocals and lay it over another song. Sounding more like a new mix than a mash up. it is the essence of dj’ing (in my mind) taking 2 things, putting them together to make a NEW thing. Example: “Stars Troll”. This tune works, it just does. If it had not come out commercially you would not have been able to hear it except to go see my show and if that is the only place you could have heard this, that would have been a shame. Sooooooo. After many of my mash ups have been rinsed out by me in my shows and the track that the vocal is laid on top has done it’s thing then I feel fine to post it and give it out for free. BUT I never ask for “likes” or any of this business I just want this “new thing” to be heard by people other than the handful that checked it out live. Other dj’s want to play it. And it can’t be made or purchased so… I put it up on sound cloud and let people have it. I don’t feel that this disrespects the original of either song as typically they are old. This gives these songs new life – a new mix – a new coat of paint if you will. so that is pretty much it. Now i am sure that this will be confused and I will be misunderstood and maybe even hated but this is how I feel, but I can tell you this for sure, people do not like this. when I post one of my mash ups soundcloud spanks me and takes it down quickly. Usually at the request of the artist that I am mashing stuff up with. which is cool, you don’t want it up. I take it down. all good by me. your loss. cause if I had the nuts to put it up, it must slap.”

What is your take on the situation? Do you feel artists have the right to give away mash-ups and bootlegs they make, or does that step on the toes of those who created the original songs? We’d love to hear your thoughts.