Just as Issa (the artist formerly known as Jane Siberry) will never be widely feted for "doing a Radiohead" — letting her listeners decide what to pay for her music — years before Radiohead "invented" it, so Cowboy Junkies rarely get cited as pioneers of DIY independence in the music industry. But they were building close relationships with their audience, chatting at the merchandise stall and sending regular email updates when MySpace was just a glimmer in Tom's eye.
So it was that I got this email almost six years ago:
This year we’ve decided to offer a special sales package for the Holidays. Between November 1 and December 31, 2002, you can purchase a package from us which contains three CDs and a DVD for $35CDN (which is about $22US). In this package is the Open Road DVD/CD box set, the Radio One Sessions CD (which is our latest release) and the Rarities, B Sides and Slow Sad Waltzes CD.
Seemed like a good offer to me, so I jumped at it. This album is, as its title says, and odds and sods jumble: a few quite pleasant pieces, though nothing as remarkable as you might get from the leftovers of quixotic talents like Bob and Neil.
It's released by the Junkies' own label, which made me wonder: if you record a song and it doesn't feature on a finished album, who owns the rights in the recording? Is it the label, because they paid for the session, or is it the artist because their contract with the label only transfers rights for songs that the label promotes in the original commercial release. I know I own all the 'cutting room floor' edits from my Book, but then the publisher paid sweet FA for me to write it, so that's probably not comparable. And if any music business lawyers ever read this, please don't write a comment to tell me the answer, because I don't really care enough to stay awake to the end of your poorly punctuated sentences.
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