Re: [ARSCLIST] Edisoniae--was: The Incompetence at ENHS

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

Roger and Allison Kulp wrote:
> I don't know the history of how the recordings got
> into the hands of McGraw/Hill,in 1956,someone could
> enlighten me here.Why didn't they just put the
> catalogue,on the market,and let some other label
> reissue the stuff,and make money off of it ?

Putting recordings "on the market" is very expensive for a player in 
this game. Cylinder reproduction is unthinkable, of course, and 
reissuing a cylinder in that form would certainly limit the market. <G>

Reissuing a "78" if metal parts are available requires a suitable 
pressing plant - and, of course, a potential market to justify the 
expense. Even so, there is such a process continuing today; check out 
Historic Masters, Ltd. However, I doubt that that's what you have in mind.

So someone has to invest in digitizing the recordings, which has been 
done for those at the ENHS. Then they must be engineered for 
publication, which is quite costly; organized for distribution in some 
form; and made available for distribution.

However, the bottom line may be: what's in it for the publisher? What 
incentive is there either to publish themselves or to license for 
publication? For the mass of material here, the odds are that the legal 
costs for licensing would exceed its receipts.

Those companies who have been willing to license are to be commended 
even if they require unreasonable numbers of copies to be made.

Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/