15 minutes????????????? this is the most important part of producing the track

errrr what did u mean then? ;)

Mastering is different for everyone, and im sorry but i think if your spending up to 2 weeks on then something maybe wrong, and if your spending up to a year, depending on teh amount of time your on it each day of course same with 2 weeks, then i seriously doubt its the best tune youve ever heard, which is a bold statement about your own music anyway to be honest...

do what works for you, some people master as they go like Paul said and only require small finishing touches at the end to boost things a little etc etc, this is how i do it and only apply light mastering really, i admit im not clued up on it and therefore dont go to town on it because i do know that the cutting engineer would rather have a nice clean track to work with than an overcooked track which leaves him nothing to work with, or makes it hard for them to work with

i dont see how someone can be doing a track and actually need that amount of time to make it sound, im guessing, drastically different... surely you have the track sounding how u want it during production?

a tricky subject anyhow!