Music remastered, reissued and revived
The growing market for repackaged and remastered music -- from the Beatles to forgotten 60s and 70s soul records.
The following is not a full transcript; for full story, listen to audio.
Major labels are turning out fresh reissues of classic albums by the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Meanwhile, smaller labels are digging up exciting but forgotten 60's and 70's soul records.
On "Soundcheck," two music authorities talk about the growing market for repackaged and remastered music -- Amir Abdullah is label manager at Wax Poetics records, which focuses on rediscovering forgotten and obscure funk, soul and R&B albums from the 60s and 70s; and Allan Kozinn is music critic at the "New York Times."
Kozinn on why reissues are so popular with consumers: "I think for a lot of people the music that they either grew up with, or got to like at some point in their lives when they began listening seriously to music, is important to them, and they want a CD or an LP -- if they're returning to LPs -- that sounds as close as possible to the master tape. And the whole point of CD reissues and a lot of these other high-tech reissues is that the companies are returning to the master tapes, taking care with the transfers, and giving you something that perhaps is a bit closer to what the artists heard in the studio than what you had before."
Abdullah says the process of reissuing an old record isn't an easy, and takes about four or five months. He explains how his label finds the old records to revive: "Everyone at Wax Poetics is pretty much a record collector, so we have all had our dream records that we want to reissue, and the Lyman record was one of mine. I've had the original for fifteen years, and I really wanted to meet him and reissue this record. And it took me a long time, but I found him -- I went to Detroit, I him to dinner ... and he was really excited that someone my age came to him and said, 'I love your music.' Because for him, it was made and it was gone."
According to Abdullah "new kitsch" is his label's bread and butter: "Yes ... that's the purpose of the label ... we're doing rediscoveries for a lot of people ... with the Lyman record we added a few things, we added 180-gram vinyl, we made it on double-vinyl ... we added the original poster that came with the record ... there's an extra track on it -- this is what consumers are looking for, besides unknown music, little tidbits that go along with it as well."
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