I've always viewed audio edits much the same way as effects in vids beyond straight cuts and the occasional crossfade. Like, you're working with the video source that was released, every color shift or frame distortion or mask or all of that is a transformation far more significant than simply rearranging things.

Lately I've been saying that I'm vidding the song as much as the video, and it is true in a lot of ways -- I pick a song that will mostly work, use the song to figure out what to do with video parts my plans were vague or lacking on, use the video work to figure out what parts of the song won't work, with both sides heavily constrained by what's available from the original source.

It took me about two years after I got into vidding to understand why 'clip theft' was such a terrible thing, let alone a big deal at all -- all the clips came from the show/movie, so why would anyone care if someone acquired their clips from a dvd rip or a torrent or a shot of someone else's vid? I didn't realize the extend of the changes people were making to source clips on a routine basis.