Adam J Weitzman wrote:
quoted 6 lines In terms of taking something which is not yours, what are you referring> In terms of taking something which is not yours, what are you referring
> to?[...]
> Are you referring to the ownership of the "art?" Which is to say, the
> artist feels that his/her "art" consists of 500 slabs of vinyl with music
> s/he made engraved into it, to be sold by a licensee of his/her choice at
> standard commercial prices, rather than just the music itself?
The royalties issue is separate from the ownership issue - if you copyright
your recordings or compositions, they belong to you; as it says on almost all
recordings, 'unauthorized duplication/copying of recording is prohibited'.
As for royalties, you have to register a recording with ASCAP, BMI, or other
organizations, and then they will keep track of the airplay and such and pass
on the royalty fees to you (minus a hefty 50% for their services). If
anyone's interested, the most recent issue of Electronic Musician has a bit
on this in relation to putting out a release on your own.
On the subject of mixtapes - since the artists tolerate this use of their
recordings, and since they're good promotion, I don't think they fall into
the same category as bootlegged releases. I get mixtapes so that I have an
idea of what different artists' work sounds like, so that if I hear something
that interests me, I'll be much more likely to pick it up at the record shop.
As for this whole radio station promo bit, I agree with those who are looking
at it from the label's point of view. I don't see how anyone can expect
small labels to put out copies to every college radio station that feels they
have a right to the stuff. With the resources that small labels have and the
small number of releases they sell, it's just too much to expect CDs to be
shipped off to radio stations everywhere.
Now when RealAudio starts to sound like a CD, maybe artists could do edited
(3 min. or so) versions of a song specifically for promotional purposes, and
then everyone and their brother would have access to it.
GD