Self-publishing outfits have been around for awhile now, giving deluded artists the opportunity to flood the marketplace with the products of their genius one on-demand copy at a time. However, Amazon is using the print-on-demand CD publishing service CreateSpace to get music back in print that you probably didn’t realize you wanted in the first place–unless you’re looking for six specific titles.
The good news, I guess, is that Amazon is going to use data collected from its currently existing store (read: find out which discs are selling well used and are relatively easy to license) to make new physical copies available through this CreateSpace thing. The bad news? There aren’t really any titles available, and it’s currently impossible to find them.
Amazon, Sony BMG, and EMI Music said that they will make hundreds of out-of-print albums available on Amazon’s Web site through CreateSpace’s Disc on Demand service.
Some of the titles that have been restored to availability include Hatari Soundtrack by Henry Mancini, Earthquake Weather by Joe Strummer, Motorcade of Generosity by Cake, Telepathy by Bill Stewart, Foreign Intrigue by Tony Williams, and Carryin’ On by Grant Green.
A few of the recordings being made available through Disc on Demand are new releases rather than reissues, such as the upcoming title in KCRW’s Sounds Eclectic series.
The arrival of brand-name, major-label content should enhance the credibility of CreateSpace’s media on-demand service, which has yet to shake of the stigma associated with self-publishing. CreateSpace was born last August. It used to be called CustomFlix, which Amazon acquired in July 2005.
If you’ve been sitting around waiting for the opportunity to purchase the one somewhat tolerable Cake disc, that day has arrived, good sir! Otherwise, best of luck; as Maura found out yesterday, the somewhat unimpressive titles in the press release–all slapped up on Amazon with a $12.98 price tag (in the case of the Strummer disc) a copy–are all that the CreateSpace/Amazon partnership is willing to say that it’s offering at the moment.
It’s hard to understand what the real revelation is here for the consumer. Amazon makes a big connection with two major labels, and for what? A Henry Mancini soundtrack? Another KCRW comp to clog my shelf? In the age of endless opportunities to find out-of-print albums digitally, adding a plastic case and the (likely lousy) original liner notes isn’t much to brag about. Anyone who has tried to work their way through the endless red tape involved in gaining the rights to an out-of-print title realizes the inherent difficulties involved in the process, but one can hope that Amazon, Sony BMG and EMI can get their collective acts together to give people something they might actually want, conveniently and at a decent price. If not, Europe’s 50-year limit on copyrights will put quite a bit of stuff in our hands soon enough.
Amazon’s CreateSpace Puts Out-Of-Print Music Back On The Market [Information Week]
It’s not the majors who are killing me with the oop thing. Sub Pop’s inexplicable failure to make Tad’s Salt Lick/God’s Balls available is driving me insane. Take my fifteen bucks, losers!
Also, I’d love to see some Man’s Ruin stuff come back into (virtual) print.
How is it possible that a Cake CD is out of print? Am I really that old?
@PengIn: Also, I’d love to see some Man’s Ruin stuff come back into (virtual) print.
Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
I’ve been lucky to find random Man’s Ruin releases for next to nothing over the years. And I’m holding on to everything by them I’ve already got!
Of the examples cited, the Cake album showed up on eMusic a few weeks ago and the Tony Williams album is still in print (with four other albums) on Mosaic Records reasonably priced Select set.
The funny thing is, if they’re going by the jacked up third party asking prices to determine demand, they may find themselves wondering why no one cares. Just because some seller on Amazon asks $100 for a CD doesn’t mean there’s a huge demand for it. People there pounce on anything OOP and raise the price too the sky.
To be fair though, I tired this once myself and I’ll be damned if a DVD I picked up for $7 didn’t become a cool $150 in my pocket.
Sidenote about the EU’s 50 year rule: does anyone who is following that not see a major change in that coming in the next five years? I find it really hard to believe all the interested parties will just stand by and watch the Beatles catalog enter the public domain (at least in the EU) starting in 2013.
@Captain Wrong: I remember hearing that Disney was heading up a push to change the EU’s copyright laws a few years ago, but silence since. I’m crossing my fingers that the laws stay intact as is, if only to have reissuers like JSP, Bear Family and Proper to get their hands on the newly public domain stuff.
There’s way too much old No Limit Records material that’s out of print. Somebody should change that. FREE MAC!!!
Cake = best band ever.
Just give me Artful Dodger (the band, not the horrid 2-step act) reissues, please. Hell, a torrent with their stuff will do, too.
Same goes for Piper.
It pains me to say it, but I miss OiNK.
Ease back and cease the bombing. I don’t want nobody to give me nothing; open up the door i’ll Get it myself. That’s the upshot, but why does it hurt so bad.
@Dan Gibson: It was weird when I was in Japan (as their copyright laws, at least for movies, are similar) seeing all the 500 yen DVD displays with Disney movies that are 50 years old and public domain there. Doesn’t suprise me that Disney led the charge to change things in the EU. I’ve also heard Cliff Richards was on the front line in the EU as his stuff has started going PD. I still have a hunch something is going to happen before the Beatles go PD. I just can’t believe EMI, Apple, whoever is going to let that happen.