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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "bryan" <munki100@pacbell.net> |
| Subject | Re-Releases in general; Rhino, in particular |
| Date | Mon, 3 Mar 2003 18:46:29 -0800 |
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> > ya'll 'bout that. Bruce can turn a profit on 1,000 CD's 'cause he's small
> > and efficient. Rhino, in the 90's reported they had to sell 10,000 to make a
> > profit on a release.
I can provide a little insight into the reissue world....and if anyone has any
specific questions, perhaps we should deal with those *off-list*? Anyway,
I can tell you from personal experience that Rhino would typically have to
manufacture 40,000 copies of *any* front-line new reissue release, just to
cover their worldwide sales accounts, and I'm sure there were exceptions,
(obviously for boxsets, premiums, certain titles), but you can see by that
many, many albums were neglected for reissue during the Rhino heyday
(pre-WMG ownership) based simply on the fact that they couldn't crunch
the numbers and make it work.
Handmade, Rhino's online custom reissue label, came along in '99 or '00
as a way to make some of those titles available, via online distribution only,
and in limited-edition quantities of 5000 or less. Unfortunately, Handmade
had/has to fight --"tooth & nail", as they say --with the various other Warner
related departments and labels (WSM's Special Products --who license
albums to Collector's Choice, Water, Sundazed and other labels -- as well
as the other Warner owned record companies, like Warners UK, Warners
Japan, etc.) to get their hands on certain titles...
And often, Handmade would lose out simply because putting out a limited
release meant that the other depts/labels would *not* be able to reissue
the titles for at least a five-year period. Eventually, Warners UK began
pressuring Rhino to only let Handmade have North American distribution
for their limited-edition titles (like last year's Fanny 3-CD boxset), which
upset a LOT of their customers....simply because Warners UK wanted to
be able to have access to the Fanny material *if*/*should* the Handmade
release sell (and btw, the Fanny 3-CD set has been doing very well...).
And it continues.....the reissue producers who work for Handmade are still
trying to get their hands on certain albums and master tapes by certain artists,
but it's a constant struggle from within the WMG labels as to what they can
have and what they can't (for instance, a few recent Love/Arthur Lee releases
were nabbed by Warners UK, who convinced those who make these
decisions that they would sell better in the UK because Love, the band,
seemed to do much better in the UK, landing higher on the charts than in the
US...and Love has a HUGE following in the UK to this day, so it helped
Warners UK to make their case for UK reissue)....
I'm sure that the above described process is something that happens on
some kind of level with every major label who have worldwide divisions...
and it's possible that Columbia's Legacy A&R folks have to negotiate with
their third-party licensing dept. for access to certain titles, certain artists...this
is why you might see a Japanese release of something and wonder *why
don't they put this out in the US?* Well, the folks in Japan are wondering
"why do we always have to buy US imports instead of being able to put out
our own versions?" and sometimes they do get permission to do a Japan-only
release, often adding bonus tracks for the collectors from the US or UK (or
elsewhere) who might want to buy the Japanese version....
I'm sure I'm simplifying this to the point where it doesn't really make any
sense, and believe me, sometimes it doesn't! But that's the reissue world.....
Bryan
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