[Dixielandjazz] Independence Hall JB CD

[Jazzjerry at aol.com]

In a message dated 18/6/03 19:32:04, mikemarois at hirelivemusicians.com writes:

<< In my honest opinion, people should only deal with the Columbias, RCAs, 
and Universal labels.  When someone purchases a CD on those labels the artist 
still gets his/her royalties >>

Mike,

This is not correct at all. Over the past few years these labels particularly 
EMI /Capital have been putting out CDs of British bands such as Chris Barber, 
Humphrey Lyttelton etc. from there back catalogues and they haven't even 
bothered to send the artists a free copy of the CD let alone pay them anything! 
One bandleader actually bought a copy of a CD of his recordings from me so that 
he could find out what was on it. He knew he was not entitled to any royalties 
because of the payment deal done at the time but was interested anyway!

In Europe the copyright in recordings expires after 50 years which is how 
come the labels on this side of the Atlantic can put out all the classic 
recordings which were made prior to about 1953.

Actually I would not have classified the Dukes of Dixieland recordings as 
'classics' and if the recordings were made within the last 50 years and are being 
issued in Europe then I presume they are coming out in breach of copyright 
but the whole thing is very muddled with a multitude of licensing deals being 
done over the years and often no-one knowing who actually owns the rights. 

Thankfully I don't have to rely on selling albums put out by the major 
companies or otherwise I would have gone bust several years ago. For every CD I sell 
from the Columbia catalogue I sell around 100 from that of the French 
'Classics' label and for every one put out by Universal I sell 20 from the small 
independent British  'Frog' label. Even when they do put out 'classic' recordings 
from the 1920s and 1930s which is certainly not very often they usually make a 
complete cock-up of it and it is only the specialist little labels who do the 
job properly. For example Sony Columbia have deleted in the UK the Bessie 
Smith series so the only way to get these classics properly remastered and 
annotated is through the ongoing Frog series.

Stuff the big boys and support the specialists is what I say!!!
(But only when the requisite laws are complied with)

Cheers,

Jerry,
Norwich,
U.K.