I got it narrowed down.
Here is the problem with the music industry today and with releaseable productionwork:
I have these 9 tunes from an artist this week and I would love to put some of them on the CD. They are dynamite! The artist is Wilson Turbinton also know as Willie Tee from the New Orleans area..had hits in the 60's such as walking up a one way street, thank you John, and new suit with the Wild Magnolias. Until we can get clearence from his lable to actually do something ourselves with new productions scored, recorded, mixed and mastered this week, it is a no go.
Record lables own artists. OWN them. They are tied to the lable.
Remember Prince? Chris Moon of
www.higherfi.com discovered him. Mr Nelson (Prince) had to change his name to a symbol in order to get some freedom from his lable. Nelson is sitting on 2200 songs if not more! SO in a microcosum of words, there you have it. Releasing work on my own lable is also something to know about. Even with my own lable (where I own the artist..hehe) it still goes back to their original contracts with other signed lables until they are totally dissolved. Some lables actually have 50 years after death clauses. It can be a nightmare. With my own lable, I have to compensate the artists each as though it is their own album. When we are talking compilations with several artists, it gets real complecated because everyone involved must be legally compensated.
The good news, I am pulling it off. I said earlier I would know something in a week. I have agreements now to put togeather (with the exception of 2 songs) a compilation CD that is worthy of a great package. The work cannot be sold or distributed by anyone other than me. Respect the rights of the artists and do not burn backup copys. This is so taboo. Just having these works on my hard drive requires licensing since I am a professional. I know their are a lot of people who like to make their own compilation CD's and Philips even encourages it with their lineup of CD recorders which have a 3 tray and a recorder! When you work with artists and have to play by their rules, all I ask is that you play by mine...because I become the responsable party. Their will be a disclaimer in each CD and anyone that cannot agree to it, well, that is the rules. If these songs "get out" amongst the audiophile community, then they have to be paid for is all. To have an artist hear their music on a CDR really pisses them off...believe it or not. If it is legal..it is cool. Good ole RIAA, ASCAP and BMI has their fingers into it. Call it accepted Mafia.
It simply states, if you want to copy the CD, you have to pay 78% of its original retail per copy so I can compensate the artists. Yes, before shipping, pressing, packaging, artwork and other things, their is 22% wiggle room.
It is a wierd world this music business and rip-off happen every day. I just need to have my artists rest easy with this demo CD is all.
The CD will be for SALE somewhere. I talked to Doc at bottleheads about 3 years ago about doing the retail but I was not ready due to complecations at that time. Someone may want to pick this up. Duke at audio kinesis has a shoe in and so does Bob when these are retailed. I will give one copy away free to the first 20 customers of SP products. After that, they have to be sold and they are not cheap either. Retail runs close to 30 bucks per unit to compensate the artists per agreement with an 18% profit margin.
