New Wave artists who own their own material?

[Rubellan]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know of any New Wave artists who own the rights to their own material? Lots of long deleted albums have had the rights reverted back to the artists, though many don't bother for a reissue for various reasons.

Here's the deal. I've been chatting with another board member about possibly starting our own record label to help release such albums. I've looked at it in the very serious sense, to the point that I've been pricing master tape reel-to-reel machines, as well as educating myself on baking master tapes to restore them to usability. I was surprised to find that all of the necessary equipment can be modestly purchased, and the procedures are not that difficult to follow. Of course, there are cases in which the masters are not in the hands of the owners, but that's when my vinyl-to-CD mastering skills will come into play.

So I'm curious to see if anyone has anything they can contribute to this thread. I would personally love being a sound engineer as a career, and running a record label is easier now than ever - that is with the exception of high license fees from the major labels, but that could potentially happen down the road...

Scott

[Surly]

I believe David Sterry owns the rights to all of the Real Life material. Their "best of" is still in print on Curb/WEA in the US, but I remember reading on his website that he gained control of the tapes a few years ago. He issued [i]Heartland[/i] on CD in Australia. It would be nice to have [i]Flame[/i] on CD. I'm just not sure if there are any legal technicalities on that one - from what I remember, David's post on his website seemed to imply that Curb didn't really have the rights to keep anything by Real Life in print, and that all of the master tapes had reverted to him.

"Words like conviction can turn into a sentence"

[Rubellan]

That's a great one. If things start progressing, I will definitely make contact with David.

[skinnytie]

This is what I heard, I can't ascertain the truth to any of it:

Sparks had bought back the rights to their music, which had shown up as re-releases on the Oglio label. I'm not sure if this applies to the stuff they did while on the Island label, as Island still seems to have control over those titles. They were not successful in getting the rights back to "Introducing Sparks"; hence, it is their only album still awaiting to see the light of day on CD (if ever).

I had also heard that Gary Numan has the rights to all of his stuff, one reason while it's all (to the best of my knowledge) in print.

[Jason²]

Icehouse
World Party
Kate Bush
Michelle Shocked

and nearly every indie artist you can think of (from Trans-X to Felony (post "Fanatic") to Maurice & The Cliches)

[Rubellan]

I actually asked Wounded Bird about "Introducing Sparks" some time back. Recently, they informed me the response they got from Sony was that they no longer held the rights. Rumor in the Sparks community is they did finally get the rights to that album, and are going to release it themselves next year. Fingers crossed...

Regarding Jason²'s comments, isn't Icehouse owned by Chrysalis/EMI and Kate Bush by EMI and Sony? Also, I think my goal is to go for things never released, or long deleted on CD. Of course, the key to get things moving is to get that first release available. My potential partner knows a small handful of New Wave artists that own their material, so we will hopefully have something in the near future.

[devildog]

I wonder if the Tom Tom Club own their own material as their second album, "Close To The Bone", has never been issued on cd.

[Grunch]

How about Comateens, The World..those would be great if the artists owned them

[StormyPetrel]

I second The World. I would love to find a digital copy of that.

...ask another question....


B
A

-~Obscene dreams in rusty beds.~-

[Jason²]

There are many artists whose catalogs reverted back to them for whatever the reason (missed option pick-up, smart lawyer, they've just been overlooked). When I started Superfecta the first thing I did was scour the EMI archives for titles and when we ran across World Party, Icehouse & Kate Bush we were informed that their masters had reverted back to the artists and we'd have to go to them directly if we wanted to reissue their material. We were actually talking to Iva Davies and Karl Wallinger but nothing ever came of it. Just because a title is in print on a major doesn't mean the artist doesn't own the master - in many cases the most recent label has a license to the material for a fixed period but the artist owns it. David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Motley Crue and The Kinks (amongst others) all own their material and license it. REM is going to take ownership of their masters in the not too distant future. David J owns his early material and even Bauhaus owns the Bela Lugosi's Dead single.

[Jason²]

Oh yeah, just recently the following titles are once again available for licensing from EMI:

Del Amitri - Del Amitri
Cabaret Voltaire - The Original Sound Of Sheffield
Bachelor Party - Soundtrack
Flesh For Lulu - Long Live The New Flesh
Concrete Blonde - Concrete Blonde
Concrete Blonde - Free

[bigwavedave]

Jason2 that's really interesting to hear how some of this label and licensing stuff works. Does the above comment mean the Superfecta titles are about to go out of print again? I didn't see Sidekicks by the Thompson Twins mentioned...is that because it's not an EMI title?

[Spaz]

After publishing and mechanical royalties are covered (sometimes a frustrating thing to get past, but usually workable), there's the subject of distribution.

Selling through your own website, Ebay, Amazon, etc. will reach a certain amount of people, but if you want to get your CDs in stores, it's not as easy as people think. If you want to sell directly to the stores themselves (and I'm referring to indie stores, not chain stores), that's a lot of phone calls to make. And even then, they get calls all the time and may or may not spend any quality time with you on the phone. With the chains, they won't even bother taking your phone call unless you have a substantial catalog of releases...and then, they have to decide whether they think that the product will sell well enough for them to open you up as a new vendor. Even if a release is sure to sell hundreds, if not thousands, of copies, the buyer for the whole chain may not think anything of it and pass on it until they recieve substantial requests for the title.

Distributors themselves are similar. They may be able to get the CD into stores for you but they also recieve so many calls on a daily basis that they have to pick and choose (and often make the wrong choices).

Case in point: I spearheaded a benefit CD for victims of the tsunami that hit Southeast Asia in December of 2004.

http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sq ... 867uu040jg

The distributor I worked for was pretty powerful in the industry, but they couldn't even get this benefit CD into Tower, Virgin, Best Buy, Amazon, etc until we sold it to a competitor who was direct with those companies! It was a nightmare trying to get this thing out onto the market even though it was a quality CD, cheap price, great cause and released by a legitimate distributor that had been in the business for 20 years!

Distribution is very important, whether it's through one-stops like Super D or AEC or through distributors like Burnside, Ryko or whomever else. But also remember that if/when you go through a distributor, you don't make as much per piece and they will withhold some part of payment towards future returns....yes, returns! You, as a label, have to accept returns. Not just defective items, but unsold items as well!

So, hook up with a good, reputable distributor, but bear in mind that you may come across more closed doors than you'd expect. All indie and new labels deal with this so don't let it discourage you....


SPAZ
Born of innocence. Free of ignorance.

[Ollie Stench]

Greg Ginn still owns the rights to all the SST catalog, and he wants insane amounts of money to license it back to the bands.

When The Suicide Commandos "Make A Record" cd came out in the 90's Sony said that the band still owed them money and so the band got next to nothing. The guy who wrote the liner notes made the most cash out of that deal.

[geoffolehane]

Shoes might. They recently released "Present Tense" and "Tongue Twister" on the Black Vinyl label.