Intrada Soundtrack Forum

As we all know, not every score that was released on CD would be viable to reissue on the format, and the thought of hundreds of unsold CDs being trashed is highly unappealing. So, instead of forever keeping albums purchasable only through the second-hand market at sometimes high prices, has there been any thought of negotiating with the studios to store and sell lossless downloads of some of these out-of-print albums?

Vintage scores from the likes of Disney, Universal and Warner's MGM catalog should not be a one-off. Scores like Once a Thief, Natty Gann and Masada ought to still generate some money for the label and studios while making newer generations of listeners happier.

You can even do 96/24 or 48/24 downloads if you have them archived in high resolution, and offer liner notes in the PDF format. All of this is of course widely being done for classical and pop music at sites like HDtracks.

I understand that site storage isn't free, but it's not like every single score has to be made available.

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Grail: ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS IS MISSING (Ron Goodwin)

Yes, Varese has been doing it with Club releases for which they have retained album rights. I should note that the Chinatown download is handled by the Geffen branch of UMG. Varese only has a limited CD license for that album. Also, I wouldn't get too hung-up on the little bit of missing music on that album, and since it's a Paramount film from 1974, tapes might not even exist anyway (I'm referring to the mid-60s to 1974 problem).

I think it is a worthwhile venture for Intrada to consider talking with the studios in taking this approach with certain OOP albums that the studios own outright. I suppose that new AFM negotiations would be necessary as well for relevant cases. An incentive to the studios with such a proposal would be that Intrada alone stores and sells the downloads, as they have the proper market attraction and operating a small-scale download service is not that costly anymore.

While a different situation, I feel that if vinyl is being explored then the growing download market should be as well. It has potential for being a strong source of additional revenue, and high resolution downloads would be an extra attraction where it would make sense.