How do MFSL, DCC Gold, etc work?

[Captain Howdy]

Am I correct in assuming that Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab and its like are independent companies unassociated with any major record label? They lease the masters from one of the big three, or whoever owns them, sprinkle a little fuckin' fairy dust over the bastard, and then sell the results to audiophiles? Is that how it works? So in theory I could start my own "audiophile" label if I could convince anyone to loan me the masters of a classic album.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Captain Howdy

[J.A.W.]

That is basically how it works. By the way, DCC ceased to exist about twenty years ago, its successor, Audio Fidelity, went the same way a couple of years ago. Mobile Fidelity or MFSL is in its second life after it went bankrupt; it was acquired by MusicDirect in 1999 and released many (in my view) outstanding discs over the years that were licensed from the majors, including a lot of Miles Davis' and Bob Dylan's Columbia albums. They're way too expensive for my taste, though.

Edited January 10, 2020 by J.A.W.

[Captain Howdy]

I wonder how or if the tapes travel. Presumably MoFi wants to work with the first generation tapes, and if the labels have any sense they want to loan those out about as much as museums want to ship Rembrandts. 

[felser]

On 1/10/2020 at 7:36 AM, Captain Howdy said:

if the labels have any sense

They are seldom guilty of demonstrating that.  Universal vault fire, masters thrown in trash, Sony no longer willing to lease, etc.

[Captain Howdy]

What's this about Sony no longer leasing to other labels? Not having access to 1/3 of the canon could be a death blow for MoFi.