Let the buyer beware. The root of many artists’ stalemates and disagreements stem from their labels or former labels having ownership or have long-term leases of their original master copies and the legal right to release or remix them without the artists’ permission. Often, the master copies include the full recording sessions, including outtakes and unreleased material. Warner Bros. released an extended version of Van Morrison’s Moondance album without his knowledge, participation, and permission. Some artists are contractually stuck with one-sided contracts allowing labels to release their music on CDs and downloads with reduced or no royalty payments. Def Leppard’s contract was evidently limited to CD and vinyl releases, which provided a loophole when they claim their label attempted to shortchange them on download royalties. As a result, if you buy a Def Leppard download, you’ll get a re-recording of an original song because their contract prevents the label from selling downloads of their original album tracks. Then there’s vanity. Frank Zappa rerecorded some guitar solos and rhythm sections on his albums for their CD releases because he didn’t like the originals. Peter Gabriel rerecorded many of his original vocals for downloads and repackaged CD albums. You can easily hear those because of Gabriel’s “Red Rain’ style vocal on some Genesis tracks. That’s why it’s best not to use iTunes Match for your existing library. You may not get back your original version. In fact, it’s best to keep your music off of their cloud. Don’t feel sorry for the artists or the labels. They have plenty of music to remake, recycle, and remodel.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 15:46:26 +0000
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