Community Remix Lab

A growing community of artists co-creating what ethical remixing looks like — in NYC and around the world.

Initiatives

The Problem

Modern remixing has exploded over the past two decades. With it has come a quiet pattern: producers sampling traditional music from the Global Majority without consent, without compensation, and/or without relationship. The source musicians remain invisible, under-recognized, appropriated, extracted.

What We're Building

The Community Remix Lab is Remix ⟷ Culture (RC)'s answer. It's not a finished framework handed down from above — it's a regular, hands-on practice where artists learn to remix Global Majority music ethically: with consent, with credit, with shared authorship, with fair compensation.

Two initiatives. Two communities. One archive.

Through regular gatherings — in person in NYC, and virtually with artists worldwide — participants work with sample packs from RC's open-access archive, recorded in partnership with over 200 traditional musicians from 14 lineages spanning 5 continents. Every gathering deepens our collective understanding of what ethical remixing actually looks like in practice. Selected remixes are released through RC's catalog, with revenue shared between the remix artist, the source musician, and RC.

This is how "Fair Trade" became a recognizable standard in coffee, chocolate, and clothing. We believe ethical remixing can become a similar kind of standard in music — but only if it is collectively built, in community, over time.

Launching in June 2026, Remix Our Neighbors is our new Community Remix Lab initiative for NYC residents, offering monthly in-person co-creative gatherings, produced in partnership with Sound Collective and EboStudio.

Remix Our Neighbors invites NYC-based artists into RC's ethical remixing practice. Each monthly five-hour gathering brings together a different cohort of 10 participants at Sound Collective in Manhattan to work with audio-visual sample packs drawn from RC's ethical archive. Each gathering will focus on a pairing of musical traditions we recorded with NYC-based Global Majority musicians from Colombia, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Morocco, Palestine, Peru, the Occaneechi-Saponi Nation, Senegal, Syria, and more.

Apply by June 1, 2026 to be considered for the first gathering on June 12, 2026.

Regular virtual gatherings, open to remix artists worldwide.

The Global Remix Commons (GRC) extends the ethical remixing practice beyond NYC. Each virtual gathering mirrors the cross-cultural focus of its Remix Our Neighbors counterpart, opening the conversation to remix artists, producers, and music-makers around the globe — with particular invitation to artists from the Global Majority and those already working with non-Western musical traditions.

Launching in late summer 2026.