Thanks for your comments Michael. This thread was becoming an exercise in chinese whispers (I never said that I'd take any copyright, I never said that people couldn't shop the mix or would have to pay to release it, etc.) - I couldn't be bothered with it anymore. Incidentally, my website is unrelated to this - that's just another role of mine.

yea, I don't think you have to explain this to all of us. Were you in Japan?

hey that was big of you geezer. Always refreshing to hear someone admit they might have made an error in judgement. Kudos to you dude. Looking forward to your future posts.

Yes - I first went to Japan in 1999 and have been back many times because my wife is Japanese.

let's hook up. When you coming back?

Tokyo-actually 40 miles out-Chiba.

What you get is: a professional mix

Why is his mix a more "professional" mix than anyone else who has Sonar in this forum? A mix is pretty subjective and I'd like to think most people here mix their own music. So why would I turn my creation over to this guy who I don't know, who doesn't know me and doesn't know what I want my music to sound like.

So why would I turn my creation over to this guy who I don't know, who doesn't know me and doesn't know what I want my music to sound like.

well, maybe he's good. But at this point it looks like we'll never know. His offer was simple-I don't know why it had to get so complicated. If you (speaking to all of us) like his mix, then he wanted to talk before you use it for commercial purposes. If you like your mix better, it's a non issue. Thought it might have been fun to see what he can do. But, that's only my thoughts. I see your point as well. I just think that he offered something that if people were interested, then they could contact him, or if they weren't interested, just let it pass. But for some reason it became an issue. Oh well. If we were all in one rrom discussing these things, these type of things would happen and we would get on with the next topic, but on the net it's different. Have a good day Dave.

The music business seems to me to be a lot of give and take. Be prepared to give up something to get something.

well said. One of my best friends stated it just like this to me years ago. Babyface and L.A. Reid got to the point in their production work that they started putting each others names on everything for awhile because they new that it was each others input that made it what it was. When Babyface, or Reid, wanted to do something on their own, they did it on their own. It's a gentleman's agreement out here (I say here as I speak from experience) and the people whp are getting the most work are the ones who understand how its coming down, and have a good attitude about give and take. Of course, their are lot of successful people who are not generous and donj't have a good attitude, but he, which one do I want to be? If you are going to ask somebody's help, and its not just a part time hobby for them, if they are pro, then they take it real serious, and you should expect to give them something for their time. Same as asking your friend about your teeth. He will have opinions, but when you really want something done, you go see the dentist, and there is usually some form of payment. The publishing is explained well in Northlodges post as well. The copyrights to the songs are yours-the publishing is over the particular recording-in some cases, and in the song itself, in other cases. If a Cd sells and your song is on it, depending on the foreseen popularity of that song will determine your percentage as well. I have to stick by my guns here to say that I feel it was wrong to scare the guy off like that. If a salesman comes to my door and offers me something, or someone on the street, or a clerk in a shop, I sweetly decline if I don't want it, or I show interest if I do. There was no reason to make it personal. I do scads of stuff for free on this forum, but I have received remuneration for others. Rjays upfrontness is maybe a little brash for some, but to me it wasn't. He just wanted to make things clear from the start. Pretty reasonable I'd say. He performs a service for free, if it turns out making the song better than you could have made it you give up a piece of the pie-not the copyrights. Very complicated subject to which I will now take my bow and exit stage left.

But hey, that's only my experience.