On Sat, 11 Nov 2006 17:40:55 +0200, "Iain Churches" wrote:

I have the feeling that the following is larger than one might
suspect. There is a huge amount of music which has not
been issued on CD. This includes many definitive versions
of classical works, and a lot of good jazz.

I suspect the large amounts of issued music on vinyl will not automatically warrant a
CD issue. And most people should be able to understand that.
What is really interesting and more the core issue is that most of the music that is
interesting to issue will have technical issues which are difficult to over come on
the budget that such would be given, and also many reissues strand on the fact that
the original master is not available or the rights for the issue do not cover CD
issues or permissions to issue on CD are not given. (In which case we're simply
waiting for the copyright to run out without renewal).

Also the buyers on the CD format should exist in such abundance that issuing an old
vinyl classic on CD will not be filantopic venture. At least not everytime. A way
around that is to seek sponsorship for the restauration of the master, or cleaning up
a vinyl copy sufficient to warrant a release on CD and perhaps even sponsorship of
research into ownership of rights and to seek permission. Even for cd manufacture and
advertising. For instance we may see that Sony-Columbia issues an obscure classical
recording and the CD itself is sponsored by Toshiba or Microsoft. Or perhaps by a
trust fund for the arts.

Getting the right people to believe in the sound decision of reissuing is half the
battle, if you cannot issue the music in a quality that warrants the CD issue then
simply doing it is not enough - most of the people who might welcome the CD issue
will prefer the vinyl issue simply because they become dissapointed in the quality or
workmanship of the CD issue. This happens more often than you think. Mostly due to
simplicfiation of the mastering process taking sound meant for analog releas on vinyl
and just turning it out on a digital media.
I think an outfit like EMI would treat an old recording much better in sound quality
than an issue by Elektra. It all has to do with how it is done and what the
motivation is, quick buck or a special treatment, both need not be impossible but it
is always a balance act.

-Mikkel