This isn’t news to many, but this morning, the band Nine Inch Nails released its newest collection of music this morning as a free download with a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, share alike license. I’m not sure how realistic the all free music model is, but I really hope the “take this and make your own music” model sticks. It’s a great entry point for teaching kids about intellectual property and copyright, creativity, publishing, collaboration, etc. Obviously, it could mean kids making their own music videos, digital stories, etc.

Since I’m pretty ignorant in the music mashup process, however, (as well as many other things,) I’m wondering what makes it possible for anyone to add other vocals or instrumentals to these downloads. Is it the format? And can anyone point to a process that steps one through how to do it?