I was working with a RBN author and helping to do the biz side of getting artists before the end of everything and have some undone stems that I don’t want to mention by name just yet. No it isn’t U2 or anything like that, but it is stuff that did get some decent radio airplay in Canada and some US border towns in the 80s-90s.

First question… What would you do? Should I ask the copyright holders if we can “leak” it? Should I just do it (and nobody will likely know)? Honestly, I think some exposure is better than none, but I’m not the “owner.”

If caught, the only thing I could think to say might be that it was in testing, but was never released and got released by someone else as a custom.

Unfortunately, I have to lean toward the first option. I’m curious what others have done in this situation.

Sadly, this stuff was going to get into RBN, but we ran out of time. I’d prefer the artists compensated. Now that’s too late unless RB4 needs stems and is so kickass that well… the angels sing and all that. (Hell, I don’t really see RB4 ever happening and even if it does RBN is not likely to come back.)

Second question… I have some great karaoke versions of some Van Halen with Sammy Hagar/Van Hagar (“When it’s Love,” 5150 stuff, etc.) and other material. Is that of interest? (No, it isn’t from the original stems but it does sound good.) I have a ton more karaoke stuff as well, but the VH is really nicely done. I’d love that in RB would the authors be interested?

BTW, I have a ton of karaoke. The quality of the covers vary, but hey why not ask and I’ll check it out. So if people are fine with that in RB and have requests, I’ll see what I can dig up. (I’d personally prefer that over a regular version of a song with no separation any day of the week.)