Depeche Mode Lets Public Remix Their Music For $4

Depeche Mode is tearing up European charts, and electronic music resource Beatportal has invited its readers to send in remixes of the popular group’s song Peace. Beatportal is selling the track’s samples for $4, and user submissions have spanned seventeen genres, including psy trance, minimal, tech house, dubstep and drum and bass.

The best part is, you can go to the Beatportal website, and listen to all of the submitted tracks for free. The band have agreed, for the first time ever, to let the public remix one of their songs officially, and starting next week (May 26), you’ll be able to comment and vote on your favorite.

The final winner will be chosen by Depeche Mode, and the remix will be released on Beatport through Mute Records. Prizes also include electronic music production equipment, so if you’re interested in submitting your own remix check out the contest rules.

What’s interesting is how Depeche Mode is finding customers for their samples. Over the years, the group has commissioned many dance music producers to remix their work, including Sasha, Paul van Dyk, Ricardo Villalobos and Kruder & Dorfmeister; but now it seems that they are willing to release the samples to the public, for four bucks. The listener benefits the most from being able to access so much free music, but one has to ask: has Depeche Mode discovered a new market in selling samples for remix contests?

Regardless, there’s an embeddable player for the Peace submissions, for those who especially like the songs. Listen to the free tunes, can you do better? Is the contest is worth entering?

Photo via telaviv-fever.com