Amazon to Start Pressing Universal’s Catalogue on Demand
Here’s some interesting news from the too-rarely-reported business side of the catalogue world: Universal Music Group is going to start pressing out-of-print catalogue titles through Amazon’s CreateSpace self-publishing and on-demand services.
Similar to Warner and Collectors’ Choice’s Tartare program, the UMG/CreateSpace partnership will see the label licensing its out-of-print content to the online service’s Disc on Demand program. Each copy of an album under this program is made direct to order, allowing a quicker, lower-risk method for Universal and other labels to get their titles out there.
A press release indicated that some 3,000 titles will bow through the service in the coming months. The release promised artists “from Chuck Berry and B.B. King to Judy Garland and Patti LaBelle” and specifically mentioned Louis Armstrong’s Back Through the Years: Centennial Celebration (2000) B.B. King’s Take It Home (1979), and greatest hits titles for Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty.
Time will tell as to what this news means for catalogue fans, but The Second Disc remains hopeful that there will be some benefit for us from this new deal.
The Second Disc 
About…frackin’ time!!!
Matt Rowe
January 21, 2011 at 11:39
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January 21, 2011 at 12:24
I keep hoping something like this won’t catch on.
Bill Janowski
January 21, 2011 at 13:34
It might be good for getting some out-of-print titles, but it’s a further nail in the coffin to the idea of a quality physical product (ie, a CD that isn’t simply burned on a CD-R and that includes good liner notes, artwork, etc.)
Don
January 21, 2011 at 14:44
Exactly – I prefer the ‘quality physical product’
over a made-to-order CD-R anytime.
Any idea what the prices will be on these releases??
Bill Janowski
January 21, 2011 at 15:06
Yeah, I have a feeling that people who would happily accept a CD-R probably don’t care much about the physical product anyway. So why not just offer these as downloads?
Don
January 21, 2011 at 17:30
I guess it all depends on how much ‘physical’ CD’s versus downloads they see a demand for.
I’ve never bought a download (either single or album), but have heard various pros and cons on it.
I’m guessing it’ll depend heavily on the pricing.
Bill Janowski
January 21, 2011 at 20:14
I’d much prefer FLAC downloads with pdf artwork of out of print titles. I’d make my own CD-R’s on Taiyo Yudens and burn them as Enhanced CD’s with the pdf as a data file.
RoyalScam
January 23, 2011 at 20:02
I agree 100% with RoyalScam
Geff
January 24, 2011 at 01:35
Anything to pass the work on down – LOL!!
Let the pressing plants do this!!
Bill Janowski
January 24, 2011 at 11:39
This might not be a bad deal if they concentrate on out of print cds. I can understand everyone’s fears that it may undermine true releases of physical product but the movie industry is already doing this with obscure movies that would never have been released due to lack of demand. So, if done right, you will have access to albums that you otherwise would not have been able to get.
http://www.wbshop.com/Warner-Archive/ARCHIVE,default,sc.html?src=GGLHMOD
http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/columbiaclassics/the-films/
Bill B
January 24, 2011 at 07:52
Will they be adding any extra songs, or
are these just straight reissues??
Bill Janowski
January 24, 2011 at 11:33