list Artists who own their master recordings

I seem to recall in an interview that Del Shannon was able
to gain control over his Big Top/ Amy master recordings and
the publishing rights of his songs back.

I believe his company was named Mole Hole
that handled his copyrights.

I would guess his estate controls this now.

 

From Muswell Hillbillies on forward. Not the Pye masters.

 

How about Queen?

Joe

 

Do you know when this deal would have been negotiated?
Did John, George and Ringo negotiate something similar?

 

Sometime in late '74 early '75 when he resigned with Capitol/EMI. This is why his 1975 album Venus & Mars is on Capitol not on Apple like the John, George, & Ringo's 1975 albums.
No they didn't. They signed to other labels (and in John's case none at all).

 

Roy Harper.

 

All of them?

 

I'm fuzzy on the details but I thought I read it here. IIRC DCC wanted to do the second album but couldn't get the 2 track stereo master so they passed on it. There were references posted here about a "disgruntled former Band member having the tapes" or something similar. I don't recall if Levon was actually mentioned or if that was my speculation.

 

I was surprised to learn that the tapes of all of Pink Floyd's 60's material is still held at Abbey Rd.

 

On the old DCC board Steve posted that he was told the master tapes for the second album were in the possession of a Band member who would not allow them to be used due to "money issues." Steve didn't say who told him this, nor did he mention the Band member's name. Levon is of course the logical suspect if the story is true.

 

Thanks Jason.

 

The Turtles, eventually (or is it just Mark and Howard?)

 

Apologies if this was mentioned before:

The Beach Boys through their Brother Records company own all of their post-Capitol/1969 recordings, at least in terms of the finished albums. (There were a few stray soundtrack songs that they don't own, etc.). Unreleased material is a more compilicated matter due to a variety issues, but they own most everything post-1969 and have a say in the release of even the 60's Capitol material when it comes to unreleased material. The only thing Capitol can release without any group input/approval is anything originally released back in the 60's, which is of course why we see endless hits compilations.

But everything from 1970's "Sunflower" to 1985's self-titled "The Beach Boys" is owned by the group via Brother. The 1989 "Still Cruisin'" album is a mixture of all sorts of recordings, old Capitol tracks, soundtrack songs, a few new ones. I don't think they could get that album out on their own other than the few "new" songs, and even those included a solo Brian track with added group vocals, etc.. They released their 1992 "Summer in Paradise" on their own, but it was through "Brother Entertainment" rather than "Brother Records", but I think some if not all of the band members also own that album one way or another.

One other I can think of: Jeff Lynne now owns his one solo album ("Armchair Theatre") as well as the 2001 ELO album "Zoom", and fans have been waiting for awhile for "expanded" versions of those albums released by Jeff himself.

 

The Police!

 

I don't know that this is 100% true as Stewart Copeland had a hard time clearing Police songs for use in his own movie - about the Police.

 

(Didn't see if this was mentioned already...)

I believe R.E.M. owns their Warner-era masters. That was one of the stipulations when moving from IRS to a major label.

 

Not the stuff from Australia though, still in the hands of Festival Records.

 

I read at procolharum.com that Procol Harum (more specifically, Brooker and Reid) own the masters to all but the first 4 Procol albums. I'm not sure about the "Live In Edmonton" album, though. Any info?

This is an interesting thread. I'm still interested if anyone has info on whether Clapton (post-1982) or Dylan own their masters.

 

Does anyone know at what point Cream and Blind Faith's masters left Atco/Atlantic and are now with Universal? What's the story there?

 

Gilbert O'Sullivan.

 

Ian Anderson? (Jethro Tull's catalogue)

 

The John Mellencamp remasters say "licensed to Universal Music Group", so I assume he has control of his masters.

I think Steven Wilson has control over Porcupine Tree's catalog. They have appeared on several labels.

 

Springsteen owns his masters? Maybe from Devils & Dust onward. No way would Sony part ways with ownership of that back-catalogue.

The Police own their own masters? Never heard that one before. How would that deal have been put in place?

Aerosmith may own masters of their recent work, but again, they don't own the masters of their original Columbia output, in fact, they don't even own the publishing for their original Columbia material.

 

Robert Stigwood owned the Cream masters - originally Atlantic had the US license and Polydor distributed Cream on Stigwood's "Reaction" label in the rest of the world. I believe the "Reaction" label was phased out by 1968, and Polydor became the main label (outside the US) starting with "Wheels Of Fire."

Stigwood formed the RSO label around 1973 (Polydor/Polygram was the distributor), and as the Atlantic license expired the Cream LPs eventually started appearing worldwide on RSO.

In 1981 or 1982, Stigwood sold RSO to Polydor/Polygram, which now is of course part of the Universal conglomerate.

I believe the Blind Faith album has a similar history, but the Island label was also involved in European distribution when the LP was first released...

The bothsidesnow.com website has an in-depth history of RSO - I hope I got the details correct.

John
Vancouver BC

 

In post 74, I wrote;

"Both Sides Now" (the discography site) is not at bothsidesnow.com, but www.bsnpubs.com

Sorry for the mix-up.