Who owns the British jazz catalogue? A word on reissues. #Jazz #Vinyl

Matt's views on the current state of the classic British jazz reissue business.

[richardharris]

And inside these major companies, there is no longer (and not for years) any specific advocacy for jazz, little dedicated marketing or budgeting, little career cudos or personal advancement in doing so. It's somewhat circular, "jazz doesn't sell, so we're not marketing it, so jazz doesn't sell". Not just the end of an era...

[nickbradey]

All great albums - I still need to get Space Walk . Keep them coming !

[Jcushing]

Hello Matt, the Demolished Men album was simply magnificent... will you release any new music with that group?

[Rogerviol]

Twas ever thus and if it weren’t for the likes of the great Tony Higgins we’d have seen even fewer of these classic reissues. There are still loads that need reissuing!

[Yarrowman]

Very interesting Matt. Not sure though what this means for your new label. Will your releases at British Progress Jazz be on license from one of he big three or will they be from recordings held privately, for example by the artists themselves or their families.

[boyoboy]

Very, very interesting video! So, who owns recordings of 50+ years ago and more that have so far not been issued for the first time? For example, session out-takes, alternate takes (say from independent studios like Lansdowne, Olympic etc.) that were not on LPs issued by 'giants' such as Decca, EMI, Philips/Fontana etc? Even the stuff those companies did release on LPs, do they own that in perpetuity (forever)? Also, what about radio broadcasts (for BBC, Capital etc.)? Who owns those 50+ year old recordings, particularly if the radio stations didn't retain copies of the broadcasts?

[ilesjazz]

That's really interesting. Thanks for posting it.

[richardfinlayson]

Great albums, yeah your right, take it easy mate.

[riverman]

It's fairly well known that the majors own the rights to all sorts of stuff, which they have no interest in reissuing themselves. It just doesn't register for them as something culturally or commercially significant. But as your video showed they are prepared to licence these recordings to smaller companies who do have a passion for the music. So really it's a massive pat on the back to people like Jazzman who are prepared to go through the hassle of dealing with these idiots to get the music out. They have proven that there is a market for this stuff, not a big enough market for UMG obviously, but hopefully we can see more of this treasure trove being made available in the future.

[keithg]

I always thought the small number of Impressed Repressed reissues that came out some time back were poorly presented. A facsimile of the original sleeve notes, so small, hardly readable and that was it. No love for the music at all.
The RVG Blue Note reissues were well done, I think. A retrospective essay, readable original sleeve notes and any photos included.