Re: [ARSCLIST] Back-catalog (was Columbia Studio/Warehouse Fire)

[Steven Barr <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Fine" <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Do you think that we'll see a large amount of the more obscure (obscure = not
economically viable as
> a CD reissue) back-catalog material showing up exclusively at places like
iTunes? And, do you think
> there will be a big enough market to justify two tiers of quality for
downloaded music -- the
> mass-market lossy-compressed AAC and perhaps a slightly pricier "hifi" version
in full CD quality
> (in some as yet un-named copy-protected but full resolution format)?
>
The definitive question here would be "How many potential customers
are interested in music of the fairly-distant past ("fairly-distant"
is here defined as "old enough NOT to be of nostalgic interest to
the buyers) to point they would pay to hear it, or to have modern
sound recordings of it?!

With the exception of a handful of artists and tunes that have
become more or less "iconic," I suspect an accurate answer
would seem surprisingly low to those of us who are deeply
involved in the 78-collecting hobby...

Steven C. Barr