I received another LP clearance today. This one dates from 1992 and is from a very well-known female artist. The original LP goes for big bucks so it's time for a reissue. I'm fairly confident this one should do good. Murray Attaway, vocalist for Guadalcanal Diary, got the copies of the LP's I sent to him and was kind enough to make an enthusiastic post about them on his Facebook page. That should bring some additional attention to the reissue.
Here's a first, I just got word they need to take back the new clearance for a specific reason (which I won't mention here), and they'll let me know down the road if it can or cannot proceed. Bummer, I already purchased the high priced original LP to create the artwork, but if anything I'll just be adding a rare piece of vinyl to my collection. Carry on...
Definitely off. While I did own that CD when it was new, that artist was too willfully (and inauthentically) flaky in interviews, and in the couple of concerts I went to at the time, and I was put off pretty quickly. For this now rescinded clearance, I got the master lists and was literally typing up the email regarding which tapes to order when I got the halt notice. Well, I guess better now than after all sorts of work had been done on it.
Not surprised that Murray Attaway isn't being a jerk about the reissues you have produced as he's free from jerk DNA. It was bound to happen, sooner or later!
That's so cool! ...And, now that I realize he has an active Facebook presence and a website, I've also become aware that he's going to have a new album "available soon"! HOME If the Guadalcanal Diary reissues do well, I'd love to see In Thrall, and his unreleased follow-up album, also get the Rubellan Remasters treatment.
Like a 27 CD sized earthquake? It’s on Edsel so any bets on how many discs will have mistakes? IMWAN • [2024-02-16] Dead Or Alive "Still Spinnin': The Singles Collection 1983-2021" limited edition 27CD box set (Edsel UK)
It amazes me how they are able to sell their releases at such low prices and actually come out with a profit. But the differences in licensing between the US and UK is not only the more willing major label offices over there, but the pricing structure is far less exorbitant. I recently shared with a UK label the cost of one of my recent licenses and their response was of shock, horror and amazement by comparison. There really should be some sort of consistency but the US offices apparently have exploitational types who will take only a random license at three times what a UK label would pay so they can keep their time free for, oh, I don't know, doing laundry or playing video games with the whole 'work from home' format still in full swing. Why has it been a year since my last CD license and I cannot even get a lousy response on the subject, regardless of how many inquiries I've spaced out over the months? Because it takes more work with bonus tracks and the licenses are lower cost because it's not a pricey LP release, so the format's been pretty much unofficially disregarded, at least for US third party labels. 2024 is going to be the year where I really keep myself in check. Some of my most expensive licenses this year turned out to be some of my biggest sales duds, so that's a kick in the junk. But Boingo just keeps going and going and going, and Dead Man's Party on vinyl looks like it will continue to fund my retirement package until 2026, but when that catalog's licenses fully expire, it will definitely be the end of a good run since it's clear nothing that will ever be available for me to license will even approach that catalog's demand.
I’m in the UK so the Lene Lovich box is easily obtained here. However, I only had a vague memory of Lucky Number. I was 9 when it was a hit in the UK so I never would have purchased this box unless I had been on this thread. I played disc 1 last night and loved it. Sounded great. Bits of it sound like a little like early Sparks meets new wave. Looking forward to delving into the rest of the box and the career of another artist I would never have really thought much of without Rubellan and this thread. I must get my order in for those Guadalcanal Diary LPs.
Glad you are enjoying the box set. My favorite of the albums, at least as a whole, is No Man's Land. But I love all of them with a special shout out for the single Bird Song, one of my all-time favorite songs and definitely my favorite music video. It has that 70's horror movie vibe and it's the perfect combination of song and visuals: With still nearly a year left on my deal, and with people paying bigger bucks for it, I'm thinking I'm going to put in for a smaller 500 copy pressing of Dead Man's Party on CD. I will rejiggle the artwork to the gatefold eco design but it's their most popular album, so I might as well squeak out another pressing while I can. The LP is sold out in distribution with over 800 open orders remaining (I only have about 60 copies left myself). While I expect some of those will be filled with the next pressing that's in progress, I'm currently holding back any further vinyl shipments of all titles to the warehouse due to all of the unaccounted for inventory. They are investigating the two main titles but it's a good thing I keep all of my documentation (packing slips, receipts, warehouse receiving docs) because I'm able to confirm all copies sent and they will be providing reimbursement, or so I'm told. Of course, we didn't get to that point without some really heated moments, which there shouldn't have been because there's obviously a large discrepancy, and according to the reports it really only started kicking up around July to the present. As the existing vinyl stock sells out in distribution, I will be waiting for a length of weeks/months to see how the reports align with the numbers sent, but their turnover leading to newbies that don't understand how to work their systems is not going to entirely be my loss. On my website, I've emphasized the contact page to clearly offer wholesale inquires, especially during this forced distribution vinyl dry spell.
I have the North American version of Stateless on vinyl, that’s all I know of her. Been thinking of getting the box set and hearing Bird Song, for the first time, might be enough to tip me in that direction, great tune.
I watched three video clips for singles from the era and came to the same conclusion! I realise now that at the time my mother used to confuse her with Kate Bush!
Just received Toy Box from Cherry Red and hugely enjoying it; it's wonderful that Lene's slim discography with Stiff has been so thoroughly documented. The remaster is indeed stellar, so thank you, Scott, for such a great job. It's spooky that Lene's brief moment was so long ago now, but the energy, the positivity and the creativity still shines.
Scott, excited to see the Xymox Twist of Shadows release in the future. This and their earlier Clan of Xymox releases on 4AD are pre-goth electronic masterpieces IMO. I think these recordings still sound as relevant and mysterious as they did back then.
I'm looking forward to this one as well. Still don't even have the test pressing yet, RTI take entirely too long to get the plating and stampers done, especially when I've had the Eyeless In Gaza TPs for a couple weeks now and that was sent to Copycats the same day Xymox was sent to RTI. Copycats just got my Suburban Lawns lacquers so I'll probably have those test pressing in the next week. Speaking of Suburban Lawns, I was recently chatting with Futurismo on the subject. We both had an interest in doing the Suburban Lawns full length LP again but had to accept that the vinyl reissue from a few years ago that flooded the market, and is still very easy to find, obviously satisfied demand. Aside from a CD reissue, I see no point for another vinyl reissue outside of the EP that I have coming. Speaking of CD's, I once again sent an inquiry to my primary U contact on the subject of why I haven't had any CD clearances in nearly a year, despite that several were being worked on in January, or what's the general status of the CD format for future licenses. Sad to say but I'm still not expecting I will get a reply on the subject. I've sent about 12 messages on this topic over the year and have been ignored each time. And as I've mentioned before, it is extremely frustrating as well as degrading that after all these years and all the monies paid that the simple courtesy of a response after so much time and so many messages is outside of this person's character. I have no idea if they've just fluffed off CD licenses altogether, but no one's telling me either way. That's why I've not even bothered to request Xymox on CD. Let's see if anything changes with the format in 2024. I definitely want to do more CD. Vinyl is always an expensive risk and CD still sells better in most cases.
Well, I did finally get a response on the status of CD reissue requests, and it's not encouraging. I then put forth my argument on why they should still remain an option, and mentioned my experience and pitfalls with vinyl becoming the dominant format clearance. The door isn't officially closed on CD (yet) so we'll see if anything happens in the coming year. I was asked to send in my full list of outstanding CD requests, which I did, so we will see...
Without looking them up in their system, they really don't know. I don't know if their system is organized by client, format, etc. But I sent over the full list (21 CD, two of which are doubles) with highlights over those with priority or that were being worked on in January. But from what I understand, some CD-centric clients are still getting CD clearances, it just seems those like me who request CD and LP are having the LPs given primary focus, which I think is crap. They used to have me send priority choices since my list of requests generally hovers around 40, but that seems to have been disregarded in favor of the format that's being requested. They can mix it up a bit rather than just focusing on the big-ticket items from my list. I have no interest in having my arm twisted towards being a vinyl only label. It's not what I would refer to as the best client relations tactic on anyone's part. I built the bulk of my followers on my CD releases, LP was just meant to pepper the catalog, not overtake it.
Really doesn't seem like this should be that complicated on their end. Rights are rights. The pricing might be different, but what the hell?
It's actually worse than I thought. I was asked to re-submit all the original CD request forms and apparently start from scratch. It seems that all those that had been in the final clearance queue, had been worked on in the past, or that I've waited on for years have been wiped out. I feel like a zombie at the moment.
