[mb-style] Setting Classical Release Artists to Performers

[Frederic Da Vitoria]

On Feb 13, 2008 12:46 PM, Aaron Cooper <cooperaa at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 13-Feb-08, at 4:45 AM, Chris B wrote:
> > On 12/02/2008, Aaron Cooper <cooperaa at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> On 12-Feb-08, at 11:28 AM, Frederic Da Vitoria wrote:
> >>> Nothing to do? If he hadn't composed it in the first place, the
> >>> release would be full of silence. The inheritors of recent composers
> >>> (Stravinsky, Bartok, Prokofiev, Barber...) probably still get
> >>> something each time a CD of their ancestor is sold. The fact that
> >>> Bach or Mozart died so long ago that they can't control what is done
> >>> with their music has only legal and commercial consequences, not
> >>> artistic. So if we want to use this kind of considerations, please
> >>> use a contemporary composer. When a CD from a living composer is
> >>> released, does the composer have something to do with it?
> >>
> >> If a contemporary composer wrote the music for inclusion on an album
> >> of theirs, then it makes sense for them to be the release artist.
> >> But
> >> old composers and probably many contemporary composers did not write
> >> music for 80-minute CDs.  It's different when a performer takes the
> >> compositions and puts them together on an album.  They are
> >> "releasing"
> >> material that may be by one or many composers.
> >
> > so what about for old recordings that are released with no involvement
> > of either the performer or the composer? or bootlegs? what if it was
> > the conductor who orchestrated (pun intended) the release?
>
> The steps are to determine who is the most likely to have been the one
> releasing the album.  We choose the common performer and set them as
> the Release Artist.
>

Chris is right here, it does not apply in this situation. You will always
stumble on those situations where your argument won't work (especially in
classical!). So I suggest you just stick to "Let's use the performers as
ReleaseArtist" without giving the "who released the album" explanation :-)
The benefits should be your justification.

-- 
Frederic Da Vitoria
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