Acquiring masters

[Crow]

Yeah, my first thread ever...

Anyway, I wonder if anyone here has any experience in putting together a compilation CD for promotional purposes or otherwise.

I am OK with the licencing and CD pressing aspects, but I was wondering how I would go about acquiring the masters for the songs I wanted to include... of course I could always download an MP3, but I imagine that in order to make a good quality CD you'd need a good quality source.

Any ideas?

 

[Mosaic]

I would think you'd have to contact the person who holds copyright, which would be the musician and/or the recording company. I don't know of any other way of obtaining a master copy. I think you'd also have to pay the copyright fee for usage.
~Mosaic

 

[Crow]

I think you'd also have to pay the copyright fee for usage.
~Mosaic

Oh yeah, absolutely! I do not have an eye patch or own a parrot!

I guess you are right, probably the only way is to contact the individual artist or record company directly...

 

[Elfie]

It's worth noting that gaining permissions to use copyrighted material can be expensive! Not saying you shouldn't try - you most certainly should. But it is expensive... permissions fees for music are especially expensive if you plan to use the entire work.

Here is an article about copyright on the website for Yale University. It explains a bit about gaining permissions for use of multimedia (such as music) and has links to other articles in the Yale library that explain things in a bit more detail. You can, of course, skip to the permissions portions of the article, but it's very informative to read the whole thing. The things people don't know about copyright infringement is ridiculous. And if you plan on compiling a CD for promotional purposes, it may be more money to gain the permissions than it's worth.

I'm a big believer in research. I think everything one does needs to be researched extensively and planned to the tenth degree. That way, when potential problems become real problems, one is always prepared for it and can rise above it. This is especially true for a business venture. It's always smart to know what could happen ahead of time. You can protect yourself from it, follow apprpriate channels to get where you need to be and not have to worry about some seemingly small and silly mistake biting you in the backside.

Hope this is somehow helpful. Good luck in your venture!