Berlin Blondes is one of my favorite albums and I would love to reissue it, but I've had to put it lower on the list just because I expect the sales potential will be limited. Plus, I would only do it (in the future) if the master tapes can be found. EMI has been split between Universal and Warners and it's a little confusing as to who owns what. Warners owns just about anything from the Parlophone branch of EMI, though some things that were on the regular EMI label were part of Parlophone, so it will be a matter of checking with one label or the other to see who owns it when the time comes. And with how slow any part of the process is, it could take 3 months just to have one come back to say "No, we don't own that". And with some labels changing hands over and over, you can only hope they have kept their tapes in check. For example, I want to reissue some stuff owned by IRS records, and that label sold to EMI years ago, and that section of EMI is now part of Universal. Fingers crossed.
My releases are not necessarily based on what has not been on CD before. I'm pursuing some titles that are long out of print on CD, or some that are not so long out of print but have become very collectible. Plus, I will be adding bonus tracks where many of the previous releases didn't include any. I'm still very curious to see if going with the minimum pressing of 1000 (for some of the labels) will be too much, too little, or just right. I'm sure there's a price savings if I chose to ask for 3000 copies, and they usually only require you to press up 1000 initially and then another 500-1000 as they sell out. To date, only Warners states from the onset that the license will be for 3 years and I have that long to sell out the number agreed upon. I've not seen any other such statements for Sony or Universal yet.
The real frustrating part of all of this is that no one is really interested in sharing the steps of the process and the average of how long each step takes, so I chance asking the occasional question now and then and pissing off the rep. I know I got under the skin of my Sony rep because she recently assigned me to a subordinate sales rep to be my main point of contact. But it has been a struggle to get basic questions answered, most of which have now been answered, and I would inquire once every 3 weeks or so to see if there's been any progress. You know, they say persistence can show your interest and seriousness but you have to balance that with becoming a nuisance. I'm eager to email the Universal rep and inquire again about the title he thought might have some initial feedback after 2 weeks since it's now been 2 months. Plus, he never acknowledged receipt of the other 2 titles I requested a few weeks back, and I just want to verify he received them. It feels like I'm on a balance beam with these people but I'm trying to reconcile what part of it is just rudeness or disinterest and what part of it is that they're just too busy (but is anyone really too busy for a courtesy response once a month?) Warners is the only one I've had actual phone conversation with, and he was very pleasant. He has responded to most inquiries within the same week he's received them. The other two labels handle things differently. Warners has me involved directly with their reissue department, Universal and Sony have me working with higher ups in the Sales. And even though the extent of my license requests comes to well over 5 figures, it doesn't seem to be getting me any sort of enthusiasm from the labels. I guess that amount, and building a positive relationship with a new startup, is not really incentive to them. So I just wait it out and hope that in a year from now I will have about 10 titles released and be planning more, rather than horrified that I have boxes of unmoving stock and a depleted savings account. I do think some of my titles will excite some people, especially some of the albums that have not been on CD, or were only available briefly 30 years ago and now go for $300. I'll be eager to make official title announcements when the time comes for each, but I'll also expect some people to grumble about "Why are you reissuing that?" As I've seen with the existing reissue labels, there is no pleasing everyone so I will keep a thick skin. And it will be exciting nonetheless.