HW: footage

[Douglas Pearson]

I've heard similar stories.

On Wed, 7 Mar 2001 23:30:10 -0000, ANDREW GARIBALDI
<andygee at DIAL.PIPEX.COM> wrote:
>... let me relate a story
>a year or so ago, when we at CD Services wanted to release a CD by someone
>whose tapes were langusishing in the vaults of a record company who shall
>be nameless (NOT EMI), we were told expressly 'no way' would we be able
>even to make an offer. We asked if that company would be releasing the CD
>themselves and they said 'no'

I've been told that basically the same thing happened to Paul Major (noted
NYC rare record dealer, whose label has reissued some extremely cool stuff
such as a collection of 60's rock from *Cambodia* and a retrospective of
the bizarre, but very talented and very gay country singer Peter Grudzien)
when he approached MCA (I believe under the Matsushita regime, pre-
Seagrams) about reissuing the lone album by upstate New York psych band
Morgen (that originally came out, I think, on Probe or Dunhill).  As I
understand it, MCA basically said, "$10 Grand.  Now go away." (for a
reissue that would probably sell around 1000 copies).

>so we said well what are you holding onto the recordings for and the reply
>was something along the lines of 'well, he's got to die one day' and that
>was in all seriousness and THAT is why there is so much stuff languishing
>in record compnay vaults and publishers vaults (don't get me started on
>the publishers).

Exactly.  If they reissue something by a *living* artist, they have to
worry about being tracked down and forced to (gasp!) pay the royalties that
are due the artist; they're much less likely to be tracked down by *heirs*
of a non-living artist.  The ironic thing is, in the previous example, MCA
didn't give a rat's ass that a French label had already bootlegged the
aforementioned Morgen album (it would cost the corporation more to sic
their legal department on an overseas company than any possible settlement
from the bottleggers would bring in).

>They just don't care about anything that they don't think will sell into
>five figures or more.

Yes, unfortunately they would consider it a "waste of time".  This is also
a distinction, however, between reissues vs. archival recordings ... it
takes a major label very little effort to duplicate a master tape and lease
it to a smaller label for reissue.  On the other hand, tracking down stuff
in the vaults can be time-consuming, thereby (somewhat) justifying their
reluctance except in cases where there are clearly big $ to be made.
That's probably why, in the States, EMI Hawkwind recordings have been
licensed to Cleopatra, Griffin & One Way, but nothing from the vaults has
turned up anywhere.

However, some labels are pulling it off these days.  Sundazed in the USA
have reissued some amazing, obscure, major label stuff like the West Coast
Pop Art Experimental Band (Reprise) and Skip Spence (Columbia), with both
examples including unreleased vault-exploration material.  So perhaps there
is hope ...

    -Doug
     ceres at sirius.com