That's right Bob. Completely forgot about those fall 2019 quotes. Still hanging on with enthusiasm...
It was supposed to be all master takes according to Chuck. If another company like Mosaic wanted to let Chuck continue the project, I'd be all for it. Why not Sony's not doing anything with it.
Sony has stopped third-party licensing altogether. Unless there is already something in the pipeline, it will for sure not come from anywhere outside.
Though I have all of it, there are still many fans, both old and new, who never got the complete box. At any rate, the principal works of one of the true giants of 20th century culture should be in print.
It is now almost 30 years (!) since the complete Sinatra on Columbia box was issued (1993), and it has been out of print for much of that time. To me, it is criminal that this material has been out of print for more than a generation! Seriously!
It is (and has long been) readily available in digital form and for free streaming online: Complete Columbia and RCA Recordings on Spotify Sinatra Recordings from the Early Years on YouTube
I, for one, do not consider streaming to be "in print". It has also been available for free on torrent sites for 20 years.
Yes, but this is an official, authorized release by Sony Music, not an illegal copy. I’m not disagreeing with you that it’s a shame the physical product has gone out of print. But it was a very expensive package which remained in print a good long time. (At one point, in order to keep it in print, they substituted a faux cardboard box in place of the genuine blue-stained maplewood box imported from Mexico.) Let’s face it: In today’s dwindling CD market, there’s no way Sony will offer the 12-disc box set in physical format again. As much as it disturbs us both, sales of Columbia-era Sinatra music will never justify the production cost. The music is still available to fans, though.
The physical market is more or less dead. Columbia material is particularly hard to sell since it is of little interest to "modern" audiences and has been endlessly re-issued by public domain labels. I can see Sony putting the old disks into cardboard sleeves and selling a set for something like 25 or 30 EUR on the European market, but even that is doubtful since the market is flooded with PD Columbia disks.
Despite these statements, large boxsets are still being issued regularly and sell quickly, from many of the corporate owners.
I was going to say the same thing. The only physical format that seems to get much of any attention these days are exactly that — deluxe, super-mega reissue box sets. Be it rock and roll anniversary splurge-a-thons or huge classical mega-sets. Whether or not Sinatra’s Columbias would fit into that market, I don’t know. But there’s at least a precedent for a nice physical set. I will say one thing for certain — they can’t half-a$$ it. The people that would want it would want it done right.
I'm curious to figure out where the Metronome session was held, so I asked eyesofageneration.com (a wonderful resource on radio/tv studios for those unfamiliar) to see if they knew. They couldn't ID the studio definitively, but did say it appeared to be a "CBS playhouse/radio studio." There were five CBS Radio Playhouse theaters, three of which were converted into tv studios, most notably Studio 50. Based on the images i've seen, Studio 4, at 254 West 54th Street (became Studio 52), seems the most plausible, but I'm far from convinced. Thoughts?
Chuck stated last October: "I can't go into detail just yet, but you will see a physical Sinatra product from the Columbia Records era in the new year. You can trust that it will be interesting, noteworthy and a delight for all fans of the music! Just a little something to look forward to…!"
However, 2020 became a year unlike any we've ever seen. That mixed in with the very tight budgets at SONY these days would indicate to me that anything "Sinatra" is on the furthest back burner as far as releases go.
Chuck just posted some more info at the SFF during this week’s broadcast of “Nancy for Frank” on SiriusXM: NFF SHOW #516 - Week of June 21, 2020 [Father's Day - The Celebration Continues!]
And pray tell: What “highly respected and ultra-high quality audiophile label” do we know which puts out both SACD and vinyl product?
A new Frank Sinatra SACD release is always something to rejoice about. The fact that it will include Columbia recordings makes it even more special.
