Giving the Artist the Right to Release Old CDs

This week's Billboard (May 17, 2005) reports that there is growing support for a compulsory license that would allow recording artists the right to self-release their master recordings if the record label that owns them has no plans to do so. More specifically, if the record label that owns the masters does not press and sell physical copies of them through normal retail channels in the U.S. for a period of two years (whether or not the recording has been commercially released and distributed in the past), then the recording artist who created the recording(s) would be able to apply for (and presumably obtain) a compulsory license to release the recordings himself or herself. The artist, of course, would be responsible for paying any third-party royalty recipients (e.g., AFM, publishers, etc.). Further, the artist will pay a license fee to the record company. This sounds like an idea whose time has come, although I expect that labels will resist this primarily because it will increase the workload of already overworked legal and licensing departments.