Jimmy Buffett turns record industry on its ear?

Jimmy Buffett is one smart mo-fo! One heck of a businessman.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/08/18/PK4256.DTL

 

I like the guy even more now than I did before.

 

I'd like to see how the record labels handle this as more artists take Buffet's lead.

 

>>>Jimmy Buffet is one smart cookie. This is the tip of the Iceberg, believe me.

I've got no sympathy for the majors.

 

Let's hear it for free-market!!!! I hope that it takes off...

 

Hey, maybe he can throw in a lifetime of free "Krispy Creme's" Nice move.

 

Good for him! I hope he opens the floodgates that lead to the music industry being completely rebuilt...

Seems kinda ambitious for a Parrothead, though, doncha think

 

Good job by Jimmy. There established artists get NO airplay, NO shelf space, NO trade advertising, yet the labels continue to take more than their share.

I hope it works for him. He may get me irritated sometimes with his commercialism (Like going after every mom and pop mexican restaurant that has something in it called "Margaritaville", but this sounds good to me.

:-jon

 

I always thought he was preety smart.

 

Yes, I respect Jimmy as a great businessman.

 

Any major artist whose contract is up can go the independent route, but they don't. Why is that? They want the big advances, the promotion, the distribution, etc. So in the case of big artists who have been around awhile, if they are still with a major then it is because they want to be there. Don't blame the label, blame the artist. Kudos to Jimmy Buffett.

 

YES!!

Whoa.

 

Prince did this several years ago but he didn't plan it right. Remember "Crystal Ball"?

Also, there are artists that are releasing albums on the net for free. Terrence Trent D'Arby aka "Sanada" released the excellent "Wild Card" on the internet and he really should have it in the stores.

 

Too bad Buffett's catalogue didn't go with him. Now, THAT would have shaken things up, big time!

 

Yes, Universal still has the rights to much of his old catalog and Barnaby owns the rights to his first 2 albums he recorded (the 2nd was released in 1976, but was recorded in 1972) and these can be licensed to any label as you can go through Celebrity Licensing to obtain licensing rights for them, but why would Steve want to add to what's already out there if he were to choose to do so? These are the CD reissues available on the Barnaby material:
Before The Beach (MCA)-omits "The Christian" which is on Down To Earth, the Laserlight and Madacy comps
Down To Earth (Varese)-reissue of original album (no bonus tracks)
High Cumberland Jubilee (Varese)-reissue of original album and adds High Cumberland Dilemma as a bonus track but placed where it was originally scheduled to be placed on the LP but it was omitted and never released until "Before The Beach" was issued.
There's Nothing Soft of Hard Times (Madacy)-exists as a 2 CD set which again omits England and a single CD that only has 12 songs
American Storyteller (Laserlight) restores "The Christian" which was omitted from Before The Beach and the rest are on Before The Beach.
The Best of The Early Years (Legend/Delta)-omits "England" which is on High Cumberland Jubilee and Before The Beach-omits "England" which is on High Cumberland Jubilee and Before The Beach and substitutes with High Cumberland Dilemma
Captain America (Madacy)-omits "England" which is on High Cumberland Jubilee and Before The Beach and substitutes with High Cumberland Dilemma

Steve, if you were ever thinking of licensing Jimmy Buffett's Barnaby material, you don't need to do so as the above list explains why I am asking you not to do so.

For Buffett completists that need the Barnaby material consider only the "Before The Beach" and "American Storyteller" CDs or better yet, the Varese CDs.

 

Grant,

What happened to Prince's plans, anyway? When he was under contract, he kept complaining that Warners wouldn't release his material, that he wanted to be able to release stuff all the time, that he had hundreds of albums worth of material, etc.

Then after the Emancipation 3-CD set, what went wrong? Where are all these albums that he was going to put out independently?

And no, I don't remember or even know what "Crystal Ball" is.

 

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but I think Far Side of the World is Buffet's strongest release and years-and the sonics are the best he has ever received, period.

 

I think he learned about how the distrubution machine works. He recently released a new album, and is reportedly re-recording all of his WB material so he will have a catalog of them. Nutty!

Anyway, WB has released more Prince albums, and in my opinion, they are better.

 

And if they could be released with some decent remastering that would shake things up too.

Got the MO-Fi White Sports Coat and Son of A Sailor and they're both much better than those MCA CD's

 

The MCA Gold Ultradisc Greatest Hits is quite good (maybe a bit bright).

 

MCA Gold Ultradisc also issued a version of Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes but they did modify the artwork quite a bit on the gold disc of this album, and it is notable that they did restore the original artwork on the gold disc of the Greatest Hits album. Keep the standard MCA disc for the front cover art as that's the closest to the original artwork they have ever done on CD.