The glory of reissues

[lukpac]

Gotta love those "remastered tapes" and those "mastered in the '80s" CDs.

Mining the music industry's vaults

Reissues on CD -- from superstars' vinyl to obscure tracks by obscure artists -- have become a cash cow

By Randy Lewis / Los Angeles Times

HOLLYWOOD -- Bill Inglot has worked at Rhino Records for more than two decades, long enough to know that two years from now he’ll probably be up to his ears in Monkees.

“In 2006, it will be the 40th anniversary of when the Monkees debuted and it’ll be my 20th anniversary of working on Monkees reissues,” says the 47-year-old producer, whose Burbank-based employer wrote the rules for marketing nuggets from the pop music gold mines. “I joke that I’ll be reissuing my reissues.”

When the compact disc was introduced in 1983, many music lovers worried that this shiny new computer disc represented the death knell for all but the hottest acts of the day. They feared that thousands of recordings no longer on the charts would simply disappear because record companies wouldn’t find them profitable.

Fast-forward, and just the opposite has turned out to be true. Not only does virtually every significant recording of the rock era appear on CD, but many, as in the case of the Monkees, are now in their second, third or even fourth incarnations. And thousands of recordings from the first half of the 20th century that were never available on LPs have shown up on CDs.

The flame of the past has been carried by a band of music-loving producers who don’t flinch at being called fanatics -- enthusiasts like Inglot and his brethren who, despite decades in the music business, still revel in going record shopping two or three times a week.

These professional music hounds typically have thousands of LPs, CDs, 45s and 78s in their private collections, and while it’s true they’re looking for clues to where their next archival strike might lie as they pore over music magazines, collectors’ journals and Web sites, odds are that most of them would be doing the same thing even if it wasn’t part of their job description. That persistence often yields tangible bonuses.

“When I did our B.B. King box, I went out to his house and played him a bunch of unreleased things, obscurities -- things he said he didn’t remember,” says Andy McKaie, senior vice president of artists and repertoire for Universal Music Enterprises. “But when he heard them, he not only remembered them instantly, he told me who was playing on them. That kind of information is priceless.”

Sure, McKaie, Inglot and their peers live for the serendipitous discovery of a previously unknown track by the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, James Brown or the Velvet Underground, but it’s remarkable just how fired up these professional fans also get by digging up an obscure recording by Julie London, Gale Storm or Peter Frampton to flesh out a reissue.

No one was surprised almost two decades ago when Capitol Records released every Beatles album on CD, or that the label subsequently culled dozens of previously unreleased Fab Four recordings for its “Anthology” series. All the Rolling Stones’ albums and singles, not just greatest hits packages, also have surfaced on CD.

Major labels typically look for titles that can sell at least 10,000 copies, leaving less-popular projects to independents or custom Internet-only divisions such as Warner Strategic Marketing’s Rhino Handmade label and Universal’s new Hip-O Select imprint, which can turn a profit selling as few as 2,000 to 3,000 copies of some titles. (Royalties on reissues are typically paid at the same rate as when an artist is signed to a label, says a reissue executive at one major label.)

Companies have found reissues so lucrative that they have reached back for almost everything -- including hundreds of albums that never sold enough to reach the Top 200 sales list. For instance: the Elvin Bishop Group’s second album, “Feel It!” from 1970 and “Guilty,” the 1985 album by R&B duo Yarbrough & Peoples.

Looking for a career recap of British political rocker Billy Bragg, a never-released album by ’60s pop group the Beau Brummels or a 1950 session with bluesman Blind Willie McTell? All have turned up on CD in the last year.

And who ever dreamed there would be a 73-track, three-disc box set by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan, known primarily in the United States for 1972’s “Alone Again (Naturally).”

“To be frank, marketing costs far less (on catalog material) than the cost of breaking new acts, so it becomes a cash cow for the industry and helps finance much of the new music you see today,” says Bruce Resnikoff, president of Universal Music Enterprises, the division that oversees releases from Universal’s extensive catalogs. “It’s become an important thing to each of these companies.”

In fact, even though two-thirds of total album sales are current releases, about one of every three albums purchased last year was at least 18 months old, and one of every four was three years old or older, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures.

The question pop aficionados now ask is simple: What’s left?

“If the topic is „What has never been on CD before?’ the list is pretty short and esoteric,” says Pete Howard, publisher of ICE, a magazine targeting music collectors.

Howard notes that collectors still yearn for a CD version of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks’ pre-Fleetwood Mac duo album from the ’70s, “Buckingham Nicks.” And early-’60s rock fans still long for the appearance on CD of the entire Cameo-Parkway talent roster, which includes Chubby Checker and Bobby Rydell.

“The independents and the major labels have done an excellent job of mining the catalogs, so good that there’s not much left,” says Rhino co-founder Richard Foos, who sold that company in 1998 and recently started a new independent label devoted to historical CDs and DVDs, Shout Factory Records. “We’re finding a few things, but it’s a great challenge, and we have to be more creative than ever before.”

That often means trying to improve what’s already out there. That means better sound through remastered tapes, more previously unreleased material showing up as bonus tracks along with original studio albums or hits collections, and archival photos or other documentation shedding light on artists’ careers and musical evolution.

“The holy grail now tends to be what’s missing in terms of an upgrade situation, and that starts right at the top, with the Beatles,” Howard says, alluding to the CD versions of the group’s individual albums.

“With each passing year the Beatles situation on CD evolves from „That would be nice to do’ to „What’s going on here?’ Those CDs were mastered in the ’80s,” Howard adds. “We hear people talk about how much technology has changed in the last five years; well, it’s been a generation since the Beatles CDs were remastered.”

Upgraded versions of the Beatles catalog are expected soon, but EMI and Capitol Records executives said no official word was available as of press time.

With the increasing popularity of DVDs, video material is increasingly part of the reissue mentality.

“For almost every good album out there, 90 percent could have a second disc with a DVD with interviews on the making of the album,” Howard says. “That is a scenario where the sky could be the limit, and I see it as a win-win situation” for consumers and record companies -- as long as the individual album is also available on a single CD and people can get it cheap. If it’s only available as part of an expensive package, that wouldn’t be good.“

In the vast majority of cases, the original artists, or their estate if the musician has died, are involved, or at least give their approval on a reissue. And if they don’t?

”“Van (Morrison) is not interested in pursuing a project using his catalog,” says James Austin, vice president of A&R for Warner Strategic Marketing/Rhino, which owns most of Morrison’s late-’60s and ’70s recordings. “Sometimes an artist just doesn’t want to do anything for the moment. Some wonder, „Does that mean my career is over if I’m in a box set?’ We don’t think so -- we think a box set is the ultimate way of paying tribute to someone. But if an artist isn’t interested, we respect that and leave them alone, and in a year or two we’ll re-approach them and maybe then they’ll say yes.”

One key change in the reissue picture in the CD era has been more cross-licensing of material owned by different labels to create packages allowing a comprehensive look at musicians who may have recorded for half a dozen labels over 20- or 30-year careers.

“I wouldn’t say it’s real buddy-buddy,” says Jeff Jones, senior vice president of Columbia Jazz and Legacy Recordings. “People do become more proprietary over time about licensing specific songs. But the reissue community works together to help each other out when we need to.”

One concern most reissue specialists share is what material will be available in the future to them or their successors. Digital recording often does away with the physical trove of working versions of songs or albums that typify the creative music-making process into the 1980s.

And what does all this interest in the past say about today’s music?

“While there is great music out there today, I don’t think the quality certainly is what it was in the ’60s,” says Cary E. Mansfield, vice president of catalog A&R for Varese Sarabande, an label that concentrates on film and TV soundtracks and lower-profile rock, pop and country reissues. “The ’60s material continues to sell, because it was great then and it’s still great today.

”How many groups coming out today are you ever going to hear from again? It’s sad. The labels are not giving acts time to develop,“ Mansfield says. ”Everybody needs that quick hit, and the artists who might become something get dropped before they get a shot. You need to make one, two, three albums, and then you’ve got a catalog to promote. But too often, you’ve got a hit today and you’re gone tomorrow.“