CD releases

[maureen & harry]

Richard we have purchased a CD by Matt entitled "The Absolutely Essential 3 cd collection" released by MCPS Big3.
We have also purchased a few others namely Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee etc., and wonder if they are issued by the record companies through MCPS. They are good quality at £3.99 (remastered) and they appear to be bona fida releases as we think the royalties are collected by MCPS.

Also are Warner still supplying HMV as we have a good stock of Matt CDs at our local shop but missing for a long time has been "The George Martin Years".

[Rmoore]

Hi,
Sorry for taking so long to reply. MCPS are publishing royalties collection agency, they don't issue CD's. The Label is Big 3, but the MCPS logo is included to prove that the material is legally issued. The MCPS will be collecting royalties (though not much at £4 for 3 cd's!) but this is all for the songwriters, the recording artists get nothing, but that's the nature of PD.

Warner should still be supplying HMV, although i know there was some problem around the time they got into financial difficulties recently that many labels stopped supplying for a short while. For all we know Warner have already deleted George Martin Years, they don't bother to tell us anyway!

Richard

[karl]

It's still available on Amazon.

[maureen & harry]

Thank you Richard for your reply and we were pleased to hear that these CDs are legal but we think it very unfair that the recording artist who helps contribute to the sale of a song receives no royalties.
It's a shame if The George Martin Years may not be on sale at HMV and we were glad that we were able to do that when it was first released.
We always buy our CDs from HMV and we were pleased to hear that our local store was not earmarked for closure.

[Sandra]

Will Michele still be doing her booked radio interviews Richard or will they be postponed for next year?

[Administrator]

They are all to do with the new CD. A few may still happen anyway, but most will probably be postponed.

[maureen & harry]

Richard, just a general question regarding Matt. We have read that Matt's sale of records are more than 100 million and just wondered how these figures are made up.

If he sold 100 thousand singles that's understandable but an LP or CD that could contain 10 or 20 songs how are these calculated in the figures?

[Administrator]

I can't give you the definitive answer, but back in the 60's it wasn't unknown for a record to sell a million copies.

This is based on a single, album or CD counting as one disc.

When you think about it, Matt sold all around the world and so it's not that difficult with so many releases over so many countries for it to be that high.

This figure came from EMI some years ago, but how they worked it out we can't say. It may of course have been more as Matt was widely pirated in places like the Philippines and South American countries and no records would have been kept.

Interestingly a figure I do know is sales of "The Rare Monro" in the first few months of release - 10,000! Told to Michele and I directly by Steve Woof. Matt was EMI Gold's Biggest seller. Difficult to sell that amount now that downloads and streaming have hit the physical market hard, but with good PR hopefully the new CD will do as well.

[ROBERT M.]

It helps that Matts fans are "usually" older people who do not download or steam music so buy the CDs instead

[Sandra]

Richard- where can I find what the tracks are on your re-mastered Frank Sinatra CD please x

[Rmoore]

http://www.jasmine-records.co.uk/store/ ... -1960-1962

[ROBERT M.]

Track 19 Everybody's Twistin'.......must have been a sign of those early sixties times........but it would not be Mr Sinatra's cup of tea ...........I'm certain about that

[Rmoore]

He recorded it for his own label so he could easily have vetoed it.

[karl]

He recorded it for his own label so he could easily have vetoed it.

Richard I'm surprised you gave a link for Jasmine Records as Michelle has criticised them in the past for being a "fly by night" company, anyway good on you as they release a lot of good stuff. You'll be off Michelle's Xmas card list now LOL.

[ROBERT M.]

Richard was giving the release information after Sandra asked him for it