Sampling

Hello all,

I'm trying to get in contact with Tomita regarding sampling some of his work (Passepied and Firebird, to be exact). I am seeking permission to use small samples of these works (looped) in two separate songs of mine. If all goes well, my album will be out in February.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Maybe you would be better off trying to duplicate those passages, after all, the compositions (melodies) themselves are public domain.

I'm not a legal expert on this but I believe it would take BMG to clear what you want and Tomita is no longer signed with them so it would be incredibly unlikely he could just give you an okay. I see what you are hoping to do, certainly an artist on their own little label can just give you the go-ahead, but as I understand it those albums were released under contract from RCA in the U.S.. I don't know where you are based but in the U.S. the Harry Fox Agency serves as a service to get producers in touch with the entities that own the synchronization rights to specific recordings, that's the proper (though expensive) way of solving these issues. (Unless of course you really luck out, get a hold of him and he agrees to make a new recording just for you just in time for your release).