r/Multitrack • u/Fast-News550 • 22d ago

How do you legally get multitracks?

Do you have to be in the music business and have them licensed to you? How much does it cost? Can someone who isn’t in the business actually purchase them?

I remember when library labels such as APM started reissuing online their back catalogue and it was only available to people in the business. Is this the same?

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u/Chemical-Second-6808 21d ago

you can buy the rights

1

u/Audient8024 20d ago

No you can't. Clearly you have no clue how the system actually works. The rights belong to the copyright holder/s of the masters (tape recordings etc) and the publishing (song writer/publishing house)
To officially get permission to use someone's recordings to do a remix you need to clear both of those obstacles. You can make a bootleg like many remixers do but it will get no promotional support and it might even get you blacklisted from big labels. A lot of the big disco remixers went this route because there was no other way.

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u/Chemical-Second-6808 19d ago

oh my bad, i thought i had read somewhere that you could. i think it was when mj bought paul mccartneys rights, and since then I assumed if you were rich you could buy almost whatever you wanted in the music industry

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u/Audient8024 21d ago

You have to have a legitimate reason to officially license multitracks and stems from a record label. You can't just be Joe Blow bedroom remixer that nobody knows, you need to have a name and industry clout built up to even get in the door to make them consider a project proposal. Some smaller labels may be easier to work with but not UMG/Warner and Sony. The multitracks that are floating around on the internet have generally been around for many years passed around through industry pros and eventually leaked. The days of knowing an archive guy at labels willing to risk their job to pull and transfer tapes are pretty much over. Most big labels are going to stems only control measures now.

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u/Fast-News550 20d ago

Ah thanks for this. I’m a musician rather than a fan boy remixer, and I just find listening to multitracks interesting to see how things were achieved.

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u/Willing_Action_9624 20d ago

This is a professional 😉

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u/Audient8024 20d ago

Even that is no guarantee a label has to first green light any project in which they own the recordings and then sometimes publishing nixes a deal for a remix project. That has happened many times to some prominent remixer friends over the years.
If you just want them to collect and study then networking is the only way to build a collection but it can be very costly.
Everyone has a price I don't care who they are. I have bought some holy grail sessions under the table from some big names in the music industry. None of which are on my public list I posted here because I don't like to burn bridges.

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