The Wired CD is an album that was released in 2004 as a collaborative effort between Wired magazine, Creative Commons, and sixteen musicians and groups. The Wired CD was distributed inside the front cover of the November 2004 issue of Wired, which also featured a variety of interviews and bios of the performers. Unusually, the songs were released under one of two Creative Commons Licenses, permitting sampling and file-sharing of the songs.
In 2005, Creative Commons and Wired Magazine launched The Fine Art of Sampling Contest in which contestants sampled the tracks from The Wired CD to create their own composition. The top winning entries were subsequently compiled onto a CD entitled The Wired CD: Ripped. Sampled. Mashed. Shared.
Licenses
All but three songs are released under the Sampling Plus license:
People can take and transform pieces of [the] work for any purpose other than advertising, which is prohibited. Noncommercial copying and distribution (like file-sharing) of the entire work are also allowed. Hence, "plus".
The songs by the Beastie Boys (track 1), My Morning Jacket (track 4), and Chuck D with Fine Arts Militia (track 11) are released under the Noncommercial Sampling Plus license:
People can take and transform pieces of [the] work for noncommercial purposes only. Noncommercial copying and distribution (like file-sharing) of the entire work are also allowed.
Entrants in the Fine Art of Sampling Contests were challenged with sampling or mashing up the WIRED tracks to produce new works judged on their originality, incorporation of the sampled songs, and technical merit. The contests included two categories of competition, the winners of which appear below.
WIRED Magazine music editors and contributors chose eleven winners to appear on the forthcoming, Creative Commons-produced WIRED CD—Ripped. Sampled. Mashed. Shared. The winning tracks were:
"Bored on Your Backside" by Trifonic
"counterfeit funk (the open source conspiracy)" by jsn [1]
"My Fair Hiphop (Challenge Mix)" by VEGO featuring DJ AKA
Brian Hardgroove (Fine Arts Militia) and Scott Egbert (GigAmerica) chose one winner of the Militia Mix Contest for inclusion on the next Fine Arts Militia album (featuring Chuck D), slated for a Spring 2005 release. The winner was "On Meaning On" by heavyconfetti.
