Rhino Records no longer exists?

WHERE is this stuff turning up, FYE???

 

That's ME !!! I won their trivia contest in 2001, and I've been getting all their CDs, and most DVDs, ever since. A great run !!! (Just got the new Rod Stewart box set today). In the last year or so, there has been a definite lessening of releases, and I feared the day would come when they'd be gone...

And I feel bad for the employees there. I worked in the music biz for several years, and it's a dying industry.

 

Disappointing news....even more disappointing that more jobs are lost.

 

I'm surprised. I would have thought other smaller reissue labels post Rhino would be going through this first. Rhino was the first and best in this business and set a standard for other labels to follow. I love all my Rhino CD's and cassettes and will never part with them. I have never had a complaint about their product, but I must admit that after 2000 I didn't buy much from them, not due to any problems. Just didn't seem to be as many 60's reissues like they did in the 80's and 90's. If this is true, RIP Rhino, and get your talented people on board with other labels to continue their excellent work. I wish all their employees well in getting into another label so they get employed again.

 

I suppose you think I'm a 'crank' but compare the sound (not the research, art, etc)
of any recent Rhino product to similarly vintage Varese or Shout! Factory titles
and there's a wild difference, anyone can hear it. The modern Shout! stuff does
not sound too good though - the mastering and perhaps mixing on the recent
Matthew Sweet projects (solo, duets) sounded rough. The Airborne Toxic Event
disc sounded fine, as did 2 Solomon Burke titles (also new stuff not reissues)

Look, I'm not happy when innocent, hard working people lose their jobs but if
your product sounds BAD I will quit buying it. The Varese discs I've bought sound
uniformly great, that's the ONE cd label that ain't AF or MFSL who seems to give a damn about reissue SQ.

I can't say I have any complaints about Sundazed. Never bought a bad one
but only 2 of the 30 or so titles I've picked up were on cd.

 

jj, have you heard the LA and SF 'Nuggets' boxes and are they as dentist-drill HOT sounding as the other boxed sets I mentioned?

I thought the 'One Kiss Can Lead To Another' girl group box sounded HORRENDOUS.

 

Haven't had a chance to listen to the LA one yet. The San Fran one sounded kind of rough, I assumed it was the actual recording quality since many of the tracks came from small labels

 

That Rhino Doors Vinyl box set for $200 bucks at my local record shop is looking more and more tempting now...

 

See, attitudes like this are why I've really grown weary of this place. Something sounds bad to YOU, so therefore YOU have a right to say the company doesn't "give a damn about reissue sound quality".

And I think this thread was intended to be a sort of tribute/RIP to Rhino, not a place to bitch about brickwalled treble boosts.

Keep pushing your $80 turntables. I'll stick with my Rhino CD's thankyouverymuch.

 

I'll tell you what I can hear. The most recent Rhino release that I own is the Big Star box, and it sounds absolutely fabulous. Take a look at the thread about this box - nearly every poster notes how great it sounds. I own nearly every CD reissue of Big Star's "#1 Record" and I think the new box sounds better than any other version. And, oh yeah, there's a ton of otherwise unreleased music on there too.

But since you seem to have heard all the recent Rhino "product" I guess you feel differently.

I'll add that Rhino's "Left Of The Dial" sounds very good to my ears, very good indeed. Perhaps it's because I played much of that music on my college radio station when it was new and I feel nostalgic when I play the box. Or maybe I just have bad ears. But here's the best thing about that box - I gave it to my teenage son, who loved it and has since discovered a lot of music that he had never heard before, and probably never would have otherwise encountered.

You can diss Rhino all you want, but I'm really grateful for all those great releases. Maybe you want to spend your time picking apart the sound, or hunting down original pressings of all the obscure records that appear on that Left Of The Dial box. Me, I'll enjoy listening to it with my son, and spend my energy on passing along some great music to the next generation.

But hey, that's just me.

Chris

 

I've only really played the first 2 discs of the SF Nuggets often and I have no complaints. It is crankable IMO. I haven't compared any of those tracks to anything but I don't feel compelled to do so. One of my favorite boxes and I haven't really dived into discs 3 and 4 yet. 2 of my discs were scratched though and I had been meaning to email Rhino for a replacement. Oh well.

 

Well, thanks for sharing.

Chris

P.S. I would think that someone who owns a record/CD store might be somewhat concerned about the apparent demise of Rhino. Unless, of course, your store is filled with old NZ pressings of Beatles For Sale, in which case, well, carry on.

Chris

 

Sly wrote, produced and arranged 4 amazing singles that were released on his Stone Flower label (a subsidiary of Atlantic) in 1970. Totally amazing stuff every bit as good as Riot. Andy Zax talked about the comp here awhile back. It was going to have the 8 sides that were released plus lots of unheard material.

Little Sister - "You're The One [Part 1]" b/w "You're The One [Part 2]"
Little Sister - "Somebody's Watching You" b/w "Stanga"
6IX - “Dynamite” b/w “I’m Just Like You”
Joe Hicks - “Life And Death In G&A part 1” b/w “Life And Death In G&A part 2”

 

The original practice of "cutout" records (and later cds) were "defaced" in this manner in order to prevent them from being returned to the label later at full value (or close to it). I haven't been "on the inside" in retail for MANY, MANY years, so I don't know if that's still a practical answer, but it does explain the origin of this practice.

 

sad!!!

 

I noticed Rhino cutouts at my local Hastings as far back ago as June. I snagged a 2-disc Chicago "Only The Beginning" set for $4.99 and the deluxe edition of Dwight Yoakam's "Guitars, Cadillacs, etc" for $3.99.

NJB

 

I feel for those employees and their families. It's a bad time to be looking for a job.

Good luck to all of them! They sure gave us some GREAT music.

 

Thanks Rhino, for all the great stuff over the years! I will never forget getting my Rascals box set in my mailbox when it came out! Or the Cactus studio and live boxes...or the...., oh my gosh, it goes on and on and on!

From Nashville, Tennessee..Thanks Rhino!!

 

Being that my two favorite recording artists are Todd Rundgren and The Monkees, I can safely say that my life would not be the same today - I would not be the person I am today - had Rhino Records never existed. Here's hoping that reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated!!

 

Sad if it's true, No news on their website ?

 

This, and for the original Rhino, + Mr. Inglot, for spearheading the return of the mono single versions, is something i'll be eternally grateful for.

Without Rhino, I would have never been able to recapture my childhood. No, they weren't always perfect, but no other company went the extra mile to give us our history back to us when no one even cared.

To all of those who started, and were involved with Rhino from day one, thank you, if you are reading this!

 

I never thought my childhood love affair with all this music at the retail level would end like this, or never end at all.

See as a kid you are shown that it all just keeps coming endlessly. Colorful packages with colorful music all at an affordable price. New as well as old stuff, it was so exciting.

Then it all just slowly went stale, music didn't matter, or not the same anyway. They killed the 45 single, the charts filled up with junk, the stores went under trying to sell it, the labels destroyed the first big digital downloading site rather than try and attach a credit card terminal to it, and let Apple/itunes mooch or move in in big way.

And then they let everyone go and kept only business affairs and accounting.

 

Rhino/Elektra -Forever Changing 5 disc box set was a golden wonder, + metal bages, book, glossy b&w artist photos and other stuff.

Just wish Apple had decided to showcase their new Beatles product in such a pleasing aesthetic fashion.

 

Crap!!! That means no more Monkees Catalog that they haven't finished and that goes with the Cure reissues and everthing else. I just bought and got the Where the Action is box set. You know, I would think instead of folding up they would just be an online thing to order either physical material or just digital but to just dissappear. It's going to be a domino's effect. Who's next?

 

Again, Rhino isn't quite folding up, they are just changing business models.

My guess is that if they finish any of these projects, they will go under the WSM banner or something.