TubeNet

I was purusing the local CD store and stumbled on a recording of a march I have been seeking for 40 years, Alford's "HM Jollies". I hurriedly purchased the CD, "Not Sousa" by "The President's Own" and popped it into my car player. I was immediately astounded by the quality of tuba section. I haven't listened to a service band since I began the tuba a few years back and so never noticed the proficiency till now. The quality of the sound, pitch, technique and ensemble is beyond reproach. This was probably a compilation recorded over many years which is even more remarkable. Kudos to all you service guys, and thanks for a delightful early Christmas present!

the elephant wrote:yes, that is one fine section. It is also one fine band.

This is absolutely true! They are, or at least should be, a source of national pride.

the elephant wrote:When I was in the Army (1985-1988) US service bands were not allowed to produce commercial recordings. When did this change? And yes, that is one fine section. It is also one fine band.

They still aren't. I don't know how that particular label is doing it.

The military bands can't produce commercial recordings, but someone else can take a bunch of material recorded by military bands and produce it themselves as a commercial product. There's not much that the bands can do about it. I don't know all the legal stuff, but it's been going on for a long, long time.

For more recordings, check here:

http://www.militarymusic.com

Here is my understanding:

As a long as CD company pays the mechanical right to the copyright owner for a particular song or songs, anything recorded by a military band can be used on that label. We (Cimarron Music) have a bunch of things on the Altissimo label and get a check every now and then for the CD's they sell.

If someone could clarify, that would be great!

Take care,

I'm not totally up to speed on this, but I believe part of it because the military band recordings (at least the performances themselves, if not the mechanical rights to the songs) are Public Domain as soon as they are published.

While not a lawyer...

Any service band recording is essentially a government publication and as such is owned by the public (ie public domain). This does not apply to the actual material (music) on the recording, that may or may not be copyrighted material, but only to the performance. That is why you can't duplicate a New York Phil CD or a Madonna CD and sell it, regardless of the copyright status of the music, since the performer owns the rights to the performance. However, you could bind and sell any government publication for profit since no one "owns" it ( http://www.amazon.com/Starr-Report-Find ... F8&s=books ).

To make your own copy of a service band recording for sale, you need to pay the mechanical royalties for any copyrighted music on the recording. Conveniently enough there is already a mechanism in place to easily pay mechanical royalties on copyrighted music ( http://www.harryfox.com/ ). The advantage that groups like Altissimo have is the distribution channels that they have set up to sell the CDs.

Interestingly enough, Subway currently has a commercial out right now that uses a recording of "Heroic Fanfare" as recorded by The U.S. Army Herald Trumpets on the Army Band's "Hero for Today" CD. Royalties for audio synched to video are called "synchronization licenses" and can be very expensive, since they must be negotiated individually. Since it is an original composition by one of our staff arrangers/composers, there are no royalties, so they are basically using it for free (unless someone "sold" it to them). So basically the American taxpayer is paying for Subway's ad.

By the way, we do make our own CD's and give them away for free - mostly to educators/schools etc (I don't know who decides this, so don't ask me for CD's). So when you buy an Altissimo CD, you are buying something that once was free. However, you may be (probably) buying something that is out of print otherwise, or that you would not be able to get for free anyways.

Tom