That's great news and a great business model. Seems a bit labor
intensive, but I'm sure they'll have quicker ways of doing it than I do.
Phillip
Tom Fine wrote:
> Woops, spelled ArkivMusic wrong. Let's try again!
>
> http://www.stereophile.com/news/060407arkiv/
>
> Arkiv has extended their licensing since this article.
>
> Now include most of the Mercury Living Presence CD reissues that are
> currently out of print:
> http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Label?album_group=8&label_id=1228
> (note that some titles, for instance the Kubelik/Chicago mono
> reissues, are out of print as individual CD's but are in print as a
> multi-CD set)
>
> And also the CD reissues of Everest done in the 1990's, I believe
> remastered by David Baker:
> http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Label?album_group=8&label_id=1402
> (note that some Everest titles have now been remastered again, from
> the 35mm films, by Classic Records, and issued as LPs and double-disc
> sets of CD audio and DVD-Audio)
>
> Plus a bunch others from various Universal, EMI and Sony/BMG labels:
> http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/MusicList?featured=1&role_wanted=6&album_group=8
>
>
> If enough of these sell, one would think the copyright owners would
> see the sense in "annuity" arrangements like this. Basically, they
> license the right to sell clones of CD's they already long ago
> amortized the cost of remastering. So every sale of an ArkivCD is pure
> profit to the copyright owner, and even if it's only a few dollars a
> day it adds up at no cost to them. Now, the question will be if this
> is profitable enough for Arkiv. So far they say, yes.
>
> There is a ready-made version of this business for jazz. There are
> hundreds of Universal (Verve, Mercury, MGM, Argo/Chess, etc) jazz
> titles that are now out of print but were remastered for CD either
> here or in Japan since the dawn of CD's. There are also dozens if not
> hundreds of Sony/Columbia and RCA/BMG jazz titles that were in print
> on CD at one time and aren't now.
>
> Also, there is a version of this business just covering classical,
> jazz and even rock/pop titles that were out on CD in a non-US market
> and never made it to the US market.
>
> I say, kudos to Arkiv and everyone who values the fact that this
> material is back available in CD format should support their efforts.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
>
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