explain "reissueing" to me

[Guest akanalog]

hello. can someone give me some obvious answers to how "reissueing" works?

did i even spell it right?

i mean-for instance, many of my favorite albums are not yet on CD. will they ever be? who knows? what kind of albums do i mean? albums like michael white's impulse! albums, albums like azar lawrence's milestone albums, many japo and ECM albums like mal waldron's "the call".

i see labels like water are going around reissuing stuff, but it is primarily from atlantic and atlantic offshoots and from blue note. but then i see labels like soul brother out of europe reissuing some fantasy stuff (like charles earland's "dynamite brothers" and some gary bartz stuff and some freddie roach stuff).

so just how does this all work.

lets say i inherited a lot of money and wanted to start a reissue label to put out music i like which isn't on CD. how does this work? do i need to wait around for manfred eicher to die?

i thought after 30 years or something music becomes public domain?

i dunno-well any input is welcome.

and i did not inherit money-i am just curious how this all works.

[WD45]

Call me silly, but I have had the same idea before. If I won the lottery or something, I would quit my job and start up the most bad-ass reissue label.

[jazzbo]

Actually, my fantasy was to start two record labels for contemporary recordings. . . .

Eclypse Records, and Equinox Records.

On the first dozen releases or so I'd have a stipulation that the Mingus tune be one performance on Eclypse Records, and the Coltrane tune be one performance on Equinox Records.

Just a pipe dream!

[Dan Gould]

Here's the simplest explanation I can give:

Public Domain:

FIFTY years in the EU.

SEVENTY FIVE in the US.

So if you want to reissue old records, get yourself a nice clean copy of the original, make sure its 50 years old, and set up shop in Europe.

Note: These policies have not stopped certain European companies from reissuing albums that are not yet public domain, even under European law. But no one seems to do anything about these companies. So maybe you could set yourself up and reissue albums that aren't yet PD anyway. But I'd do it in Europe, just to be on the safe side.

The other reissue programs you mention, like Water, have licensing agreements with the copyright holders. So your last option would be to approach the copyright holders of the music you'd like to see reissued and try to reach a licensing agreement.

[Rosco]

  Dan Gould said:

Public Domain:

FIFTY years in the EU.

SEVENTY FIVE in the US.

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There are rumblings about this changing (at least in the UK)... Pretty soon the earliest Elvis recordings go PD and next decade The Beatles. Can't really imagine the powers that be allowing those golden geese to be plucked.

  Dan Gould said:

Note:  These policies have not stopped certain European companies from reissuing albums that are not yet public domain, even under European law.  But no one seems to do anything about these companies. 

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Italy & Spain used to have quite a creative interpretation of PD rules it seems...

[Guest akanalog]

but someone like manfred eicher or bob shad (does he own the mainstream stuff?) and whoever is running concord, which owns fantasy (dana barros?)-they wouldn't give up the goods if i asked them to, no? is that the problem?

what's up with mainstream? lots of good music and i have seen like three sketchily produced CDs during my lifetime. why not let someone else do it?

i would have to speak to MPS too, since they seem a bit pretentious about their reissue program.

[Dr. Rat]

I thnk I read somewhere (here?) that thjere was a move afoot to force record companies to allow the reproduction of out-of-prints on a pre-order basis with royalties paid.

Anyone remember this?

--eric

[Dr. Rat]

I guess this article from Wired may be what I'm talking about.

--eric

[clifford_thornton]

Well, for my two cents, one has to assume that major companies still have the master tapes to all of it - they usually don't like to go from vinyl sources, and a lot of tapes get lost or degrade beyond usability.

As for leasing catalogs, ECM is owned by Universal, so I can imagine that might be quite a headache. If you can, I suppose you'd want to deal with the artists - though some of them are as out of it and loony as the labels...

Edited July 21, 2005 by clifford_thornton

[jazzbo]

Best thing would be to spend each day of your year campaigning to make "jazz" a music genre that people were interested and excited about and willing to spend lots of entertainment dollars on in every sense: live performances, television productions, contemporary recordings, reissues, histories. . . .

THEN there will be a demand for quality reissues and wishes will be considered and probably filled. . . .

Go ahead. It's not my turn THIS decade. . . seems like that's how I spend a good part of the 'nineties!

[Guy Berger]

  clifford_thornton said:

As for leasing catalogs, ECM is owned by Universal,

I think Universal only owns the distribution rights, not the catalog itself.

Guy

[Rosco]

  jazzbo said:

Best thing would be to spend each day of your year campaigning to make "jazz" a music genre that people were interested and excited about and willing to spend lots of entertainment dollars on in every sense:  live performances, television productions, contemporary recordings, reissues, histories. . . .

THEN there will be a demand for quality reissues and wishes will be considered and probably filled. . . .

Go ahead.  It's not my turn THIS decade. . . seems like that's how I spend a good part of the 'nineties!

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Hey, that's just crazy enough to work!!