----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Olhsson" <[log in to unmask]> > -----Original Message----- >>From Tom Fine: "...The idea is that a wide variety of > deep-catalog content, if made constantly available in a medium that costs > little to distribute (ie digital downloads) will, in sum, be profitable > over > time. The key is over time." > > > Let's not forget the major labels have only just come out from under a > cloud > that left who will own what very much up in the air. I understand a huge > problem has been determining what royalties are involved and even the > actual > ownership of masters. Contrary to what one reads, royalty agreements and > master ownership have always been all over the map. Another issue has been > an appropriate file format so that everything doesn't need to be > re-encoded > every year or so. > > I have no doubt that the future of recorded music catalogs is precisely > this > but I don't think it's quite as easy to accomplish as it sounds. I'm sure > the folks involved want to set everything up once correctly rather than > have > it remain an endless work in progress that never really becomes > profitable. > Well, if all else should fail...I probably have 2% (+/-) of the total North American catalog of sound recordings...here in my half-vast shellac archive...?! Steven C. Barr