FINALLY, PD LAWS HAVE OFFICIALLY CHANGED!!

To argue that Elvis' legacy has been diluted by the PD is the height of insanity considering the record compiled by his own label over the past 40 plus years. Who gave us monstrosities like Elvis Sings Hits from His Movies, Burning Love and Hits from His Movies Volume Two, Elvis Sings for Children and Grownups Too, Elvis' Greatest Hits (which only contained a few actual hit recordings) and dozens of love song compilations including super cheapos like the ever popular, ever available Very Best of Love? Why his own record label. The legacy of one of Elvis' finest LPs Elvis Country has been submarined by his own label putting out other comps with the same name leaving fans to believe that EC is just another comp. Yes, they've been exemplary stewards of the work.

Further a great many Elvis PD compilations have enhanced appreciation of his work. Think of the work that MRS has done. Their GI Blues boxed set, in particular, matched anything FTD has ever done. This was not a quick buck compilation. This was done by people who care about the music and want to contextualize it, people who would like their say in the great Elvis debate.

There's also the lower PD prices to consider. For all the people who get turned off allegedly, there are fans out there who can take a chance because of the lower prices. I think many of these fans understand sound limitations and may move up to the bigger releases simply because they like the songs they hear.

Also, the availability of Elvis to multi-artist compilations is a huge benefit. You now get to hear Elvis next to Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Dion, Buddy Holly, Connie Francis, one hit wonders like the Silhouettes and Buster Brown and whomever else was on the charts in his hey day. This is a great chance to contextualize him and the era. After all what can a late 50s comp tell us without the biggest artists of the era. Now we get to hear the era as it originally happened.

The benefits to popular music in general are immeasurable as Peter has pointed out. I have Muddy Waters and Dinah Washington boxes tghat the major labels would have never attempted. The money there has to be big and with CDs dying out it's just not anymore. The education and pleasure these records provide is immense. One of the best series of all time was a survey of all the R&B hits of each year that was done early in the last decade. Only PD made this possible. Songs that were once only titles in a book, you now got to hear. Songs you maybe didn't know existed before. And this is the essence of what's going on. As Peter pointed out. Without the PD law much music will disappear. As the years go on and you get further away in time from the original hits only the super super stars will survive as the songs no longer get played on radio. Audiences who might have enjoyed these songs will not hear them because they don't know they exist or they are simply unavailable. Unless the music is loaded on the internet, which the majors are also trying to stop, you can kiss it goodbye.

Yes, thousands. You clearly have no idea about the amount of music there is out there aside from the big players and the people we remember today. The boxed set I linked to earlier in the thread by itself has music from 580 different artists over 100 CD. Those artists are both well-known today and forgotten, but the music contained on the set is by and large unavailable elsewhere. There are albums my musical legends that are still officially unavailable on CD.

I have no interest in reading a Man and his Music article which is clearly going to be about one artist and one artist alone. There is a bigger world out there. As LTB has stated, the PD companies have only followed in the line of Sony/BMG/RCA. You moan about the PD companies flooding the market with substandard product, and yet Sony do exactly that. How many Christmas CDs are they going to issue exactly? And that's just one example. Sadly too many people on here who moan about the PD law are so obsessed with the music of one person that they fail to see the bigger picture - and that is their loss; there is a multitude of music out there just waiting to be heard, and a great deal of it is far more worthy of our ears than some of the crap Elvis spewed out over the years.

The point that you actually miss is that there are a number of Elvis albums that are no longer in print, mostly soundtracks, which will now more than likely never ever see the light of day at retail level due to the PD law being extended. Sony clearly have no plans to continue the soundtrack series from a few years ago, so don't ever expect to find Kissin Cousins, Speedway, Harum Scarum, Spinout and Double Trouble on the shelves in a record store again. Of course, had the PD law not been extended, these albums could have had decent releases and been available for all to "enjoy" once again.

As for my comments about jazz and blues artists more interested in their music being heard than getting a royalty cheque, you quite clearly haven't read much about those artists either, or heard interviews with them. They played for the love of music, not for the love of money. Either way, with or without the PD releases they and their families will not get a dime, but at least with the PD releases they get recognition and acknowledgment for the contribution they made to musical history.

Turning to the Dylan collection of unreleased material, what a stupid marketing strategy: release something officially, but make it almost impossible to get, and then release it properly later...by which point one of the people who bought the release has put it online and all the fans have downloaded it in sparkling quality. A round of applause to Sony for sheer stupidity.

I'm so glad you can argue intelligently. Just what the board needs, someone else who finds they can only express themselves through smilies and have severe limitations with words and ideas.

Think of the work that MRS has done.

Yes, we should all be thankful for the "f**k Ernst campaign", poor audio sources and questionable mastering efforts. We want more! We want more!

I'm so glad you can argue intelligently. Just what the board needs, someone else who finds they can only express themselves through smilies and have severe limitations with words and ideas.

my words have already been spoken, sorry you just don`t understand, you give a new meaning to the word boredom

Yes, we should all be thankful for the "f**k Ernst campaign", poor audio sources and questionable mastering efforts. We want more! We want more!

could not agree more

Think of the work that MRS has done.

Yes, we should all be thankful for the "f**k Ernst campaign", poor audio sources and questionable mastering efforts. We want more! We want more!

Matthew with all due respect, I don't think comments can be made about poor mastering considering some of FTDs efforts.

While I don't own any MRS discs, nor have I heard them, it is sill true to say that ONLY through that company can one buy certain live Presley performances from 1956 and 1961 at this present time, and only through other PD companies can one buy the 1956 Sullivan and other TV performances on CD - performances that are significant enough historically to be available at all times officially through Sony, but are not. Whether one supports MRS or not, this fact alone makes a case for the validity of public domain issues of unavailable material. If the audio sources are inferior to those available to Sony, well so be it, but at least the performances are out there in some form - and shame on Sony for not having them in the marketplace themselves. What's more, the questionable methods of MRS should not be seen as a typical example of the many labels that strive to provide high quality products for music lovers of all genres.

OMG take your meds and call it a night...this "your way or the highway" is getting extremely boring...your sleeping son I know but really this can`t wait I wanted to explain before it gets too late...enough you just don`t get it

Matthew with all due respect, I don't think comments can be made about poor mastering considering some of FTDs efforts.

There is a great difference between an occasional mastering error and a mastering philosophy, and the same can be said for business.

OMG take your meds and call it a night...this "your way or the highway" is getting extremely boring...your sleeping son I know but really this can`t wait I wanted to explain before it gets too late...enough you just don`t get it

It's very rare I say this on the boards, but "shut up"

Not that most jazz or blues or even rock artists are truly getting royalty payments after all these years. Again, a few superstars are the ones who really get paid and that's about it. Even Elvis doesn't receive a dime for pre-1973 work. At least though he got some money. And once again, PD does not preclude an artist making money from his performances. He/she can put out a compilation and bring home all the money rather than a mere royalty. They also unlike with a record company can, for once have complete say in what they put out.

MRS has done fine work and provided healthy competition to Sony. Their 50s live compilation, which was much criticized, arguably led to the release of that December Hayride show on a single disc by Sony. Sony in all their fan friendly generosity decided to put out a new valuable set of Elvis recordings on a more than $100 plus box that contained nothing else the fans already didn't have. MRS by providing competition helped spur Sony to a sensible single disc release. A central tenet of capitalism is that competition is good.

MRS has done sterling work. The GI Blues box I mentioned had very fine, if not master tape level sound, and was beautifully presented. Again, it was only after MRS made their record that Sony countered with an FTD. Hell they had a decade to do it and only responded after MRS did their work. Competition is good. The video that MRS put together of the fair footage was another invaluable piece of work. Some have an erection here against MRS but it's founded on really nothing save mistaking corporate profits for artistic protection.

And let's the remember the real advantage that Sony has is access to the master tapes. However, not everything is in their possession and not everyone wants to work with them. The PD law previously gave people the opportunity to share their Elvis treasures without having to deal with Sony. What if tomorrow someone came out with the tapes of Elvis jamming with the Golden Gate Quartet and Sony didn't meet their price? That would mean there would be no chance for the tape to be heard.

It was a great law and it's a shame it's being gutted for corporate profits.

It's very rare I say this on the boards, but "shut up"

right back at you my friend, how much have you contributed to this topic?? NOTHING now grow up or move on

Not that most jazz or blues or even rock artists are truly getting royalty payments after all these years. Again, a few superstars are the ones who really get paid and that's about it. Even Elvis doesn't receive a dime for pre-1973 work. At least though he got some money. And once again, PD does not preclude an artist making money from his performances. He/she can put out a compilation and bring home all the money rather than a mere royalty. They also unlike with a record company can, for once have complete say in what they put out.

MRS has done fine work and provided healthy competition to Sony. Their 50s live compilation, which was much criticized, arguably led to the release of that December Hayride show on a single disc by Sony. Sony in all their fan friendly generosity decided to put out a new valuable set of Elvis recordings on a more than $100 plus box that contained nothing else the fans already didn't have. MRS by providing competition helped spur Sony to a sensible single disc release. A central tenet of capitalism is that competition is good.

MRS has done sterling work. The GI Blues box I mentioned had very fine, if not master tape level sound, and was beautifully presented. Again, it was only after MRS made their record that Sony countered with an FTD. Hell they had a decade to do it and only responded after MRS did their work. Competition is good. The video that MRS put together of the fair footage was another invaluable piece of work. Some have an erection here against MRS but it's founded on really nothing save mistaking corporate profits for artistic protection.

And let's the remember the real advantage that Sony has is access to the master tapes. However, not everything is in their possession and not everyone wants to work with them. The PD law previously gave people the opportunity to share their Elvis treasures without having to deal with Sony. What if tomorrow someone came out with the tapes of Elvis jamming with the Golden Gate Quartet and Sony didn't meet their price? That would mean there would be no chance for the tape to be heard.

It was a great law and it's a shame it's being gutted for corporate profits.

isn`t it hilarious that of all the PD labels out there (past and present) you can only use "1" in an attempt to make a lousy argument, thanks for confirming all along what you and your other friend stand for, again NOTHING

Their 50s live compilation, which was much criticized, arguably led to the release of that December Hayride show on a single disc by Sony.

Doubtful. Arguably (we know!), Sony's Young Man With The Big Beat led to the rip-off release.

The GI Blues box I mentioned had very fine, if not master tape level sound, and was beautifully presented. Again, it was only after MRS made their record that Sony countered with an FTD. Hell they had a decade to do it and only responded after MRS did their work.

FTD's GI Blues was always going to come out, regardless of the exploits of a grey label. MRS's product did not cause FTD to respond with their own release.

I use MRS because they focus on Elvis and have done good work. I have dozens of PD releases and many of them are great. The Proper label has arguably rivaled the ACE label as the best reissue label in the business in the past decade. They've done terrific boxed sets of the likes of Muddy Waters, Wyonnie Harris and Dinah Washington which have a thoroughness a major label would never attempt and books and art that rival anything out there. They've also done a great introduction series for an astonishing variety of artists from Elvis (mostly focusing on Sun) to Rosemary Clooney. A label named JSP has provided me with great boxed sets from Charles Brown and Lowell Fulson (both Elvis influences by the way) and we know the majors were just busting to release those. My listening experience would have been much poorer without the PD law.

If GI Blues was always going to come out, it sure took a long time. Again, competition is good. There are two ways to experience this music and MRS' presentations beats Sony's sound be damned. Sound is only one element of a successful reissue.

On Young Man With a Big Beat Sony only initially released that concert on a hugely expensive, and hugely redundant boxed set. It's certainly an odd coincidence that Sony only decided to issue the concert on a single disc after MRS did the same.

I really fail to understand the argument a fan could make against the PD. It seems the only argument is that the corps have access to the master tapes and therefore everything they do is superior. Again, if you like what they're doing nobody is stopping you from buying. However, competition is good.

It's not as if the label has not had exclusive rights to release this stuff for decades!!!! It's also not as if we haven't been fed a steady diet of sloppy half-assed comps at their hands. So that argument is out the window.

And it works both ways, if Sony thinks it can do better it can just easily cop something from the PDs.

With a sound PD law you are virtually guaranteed to hear a lot of this music and get it at an affordable price. What an anti-PD law does is kill work. The easy access to work is what keeps it alive.

Look at the films It's a Wonderful Life. A flop upon its original release the rights for the film lapsed into the public domain. For all the crummy prints and cuts that dominated the market place, it also allowed It's a Wonderful Life to play on television on a loop for decades. It was that exposure that turned this one time flop into an American classic.

If GI Blues was always going to come out, it sure took a long time.

There is no "if" - FTD have been releasing Soundtrack/Classic Albums for years, long before MRS's exploit using old bootlegs. FTD's schedule is not going to be manipulated by the exploits of some grey-market label.

On Young Man With a Big Beat Sony only initially released that concert on a hugely expensive, and hugely redundant boxed set. It's certainly an odd coincidence that Sony only decided to issue the concert on a single disc after MRS did the same.

How Sony chose to issue their property is their business but it's a tall assumption that the concert was only ever going to be used on the box-set. Remember, MRS threatened years before it hit the shelves to rip-off Sony's efforts as soon as Sony put out a release. Sony's Setlist series covers a multitude of artists across their catalogue.

It seems the only argument is that the corps have access to the master tapes and therefore everything they do is superior.

In Elvis' audio case this is quite true.

Unless a PD company has negotiated to use original source elements, or have some secret stash of master tapes lying around you can bet your bottom dollar these releases source their material from other CDs and vinyl records (amongst other things).

It's very rare I say this on the boards, but "shut up"

right back at you my friend, how much have you contributed to this topic?? NOTHING now grow up or move on

Seriously? He wrote loads and in a thoughtful fashion, as did LTB. You can disagree with every word of course, but a little daft to suggest that he brought nothing to the table.

For those who don't have the magazine article you keep referencing, what are the main points that you found so convincing?

The point is MRS did what Sony didn't do and did it well. They used old bootlegs but their packaging made the difference. You were able to get a first rate representation of these sessions and they did it before Sony.

The audio comment is representative of the kind of tunnel vision that dominates this board. Not everyone is an audiophile. The sound on the MRS releases, the Proper releases are very comparable if not equal to their major label counterparts. Most people are happy with respectable sound.

It's not a tall assumption that it was only going to be used on the boxed set. That's the way it was for a year. Was there any reason to ever assume you would get this concert, which was the big musical bait on the boxed set, on a single disc? To the average fan, no.

As for Sony's setlist this was a fairly obscure set list, Elvis live in the 1950s. Yeah, I'm sure that was at the top of the corporate agenda for a label whose most imaginative releases are the ten thousandth reiterations of love songs collections and twofers on classic albums, the kind of things other labels were doing with other artists 20 years ago.

If GI Blues was always going to come out, it sure took a long time.

There is no "if" - FTD have been releasing Soundtrack/Classic Albums for years, long before MRS's exploit using old bootlegs. FTD's schedule is not going to be manipulated by the exploits of some grey-market label.

Boy is this a contradictory statement. If it's truly the case why are you concerned with the PD law at all? If it doesn't impact the FTD release schedule and you can buy all the FTDs you please why are you so happy the PD law has been altered? It can't be that important to you or anyone outside the Sony stockholders and board of directors that Sony, an entity by the way that had nothing to do with the creation of these recordings, does not have the exclusive rights to Elvis Presley recordings. As I've already pointed out, the diluting the legacy jazz doesn't quite hold up when some of the most commonly available Elvis CDs are haphazard comps like Very Best of Love and An Evening Prayer. And that's just in the contemporary landscape.

Boy is this a contradictory statement. If it's truly the case why are you concerned with the PD law at all? If it doesn't impact the FTD release schedule and you can buy all the FTDs you please why are you so happy the PD law has been altered? It can't be that important to you or anyone outside the Sony stockholders and board of directors that Sony, an entity by the way that had nothing to do with the creation of these recordings, does not have the exclusive rights to Elvis Presley recordings. As I've already pointed out, the diluting the legacy jazz doesn't quite hold up when some of the most commonly available Elvis CDs are haphazard comps like Very Best of Love and An Evening Prayer. And that's just in the contemporary landscape.

You miss the mark completely (a Tom Jones track comes to mind). Labels such as the one in question exploit such laws for their own gains, not the betterment of the "greater good", and in some instances put at risk the potential of releasing material like the Hayride show at all. And then there are things like the live recording of I Forgot To Remember To Forget, which due to the PD thing has seen various releases of the YouTube camera audio. Why bother investing in the source wire and putting out a great sounding commercial product now?

We seem to live in a society where there is a considerable sense of entitlement. Tupelo got ripped off within weeks when really, the owner(s) of the source material should have the freedom and right to issue that material on future official releases, and expect to profit from it as they see fit. Of course they can do this to an extent but the business sense in bothering seeking out old, rare material gets that much harder knowing some lazy, selfish, independent labels out there will just rip it off for their own gains. I am thankful the likes of Ernst invested and persevered for the Tupelo set in spite of the crooks who would bottom feed off their efforts and financial outlay by exploiting a legal loophole that should have been dealt with earlier.

Matthew you seem to live in a strange world, I know you live in a little dot of the world, but hey try a social network and get yourself a life you seem to be way off topic.
The PD law has changed due to a lot of hard work from various companies & artist alike, not because you have a grudge against MRS.

MRS is just one of hundreds PD companies, all be it probably the best as far as Elvis is concerned as they take care and give a quality product to customers and Elvis fans. Which is something you fail to see with your blinkers, but that’s fine, just getting weary seeing you write the same drivel time after time?

The PD law has changed here in Europe, for the better in most respects as there is a whole influx of cheap rubbish on every conceivable song that was in the public domain, but as with everything there is good and bad.

One only good thing that could see was that it helped introduce new people to new music (not just Elvis) that may never have thought of it before, simply because it was cheap, and being able to go into a fuel station on one of the UK motorways and pick up a 10 CD box set of music for under £4.00, that to me is a great thing.

The bad thing is as time has progressed and the more years that have fallen into public domain there is more and more people trying to cap into a market that is now becoming short lived, more are trying to cash in before it ends.#

If this new law wasn’t brought in I doubt we would have seen such an influx, but in saying that too there is still far too much of it, and while doing some good it also does a great deal of harm.

Poormadpeter, Likethebike -- good posts! Although I was disappointed to see Likethebike praise the "GI Blues" set from MRS. Surely, the sound quality on that boxset is nowhere near the efforts found on the Classic Album releases from FTD. But hey, nobody is perfect!

I for one will miss the PD law. You can't protect music like you could 15 years ago, anyway. Artists and record companies can't choose what recordings the audience should hear and what recordings should not be heard. Everything can be found on the Internet, and this is where people (not me, but people) listen to music these days, they listen to Spotify and YouTube. And you can find plenty of garbage there, more garbage than on any PD release. So what is the next step... ban the entire Internet, perhaps?

Keith Richards, Jr

ELVIS THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC No.98 - DECEMBER 2012 page 26,27 and 28 TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS? by Luther Moore

the price you pay for one or two cheapo PD releases will get you this issue above, after you have done that, read read and read again the article I`m referring too and maybe you will finally get it, but I`m guessing not...

ELVIS THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC No.98 - DECEMBER 2012 page 26,27 and 28 TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS? by Luther Moore

the price you pay for one or two cheapo PD releases will get you this issue above, after you have done that, read read and read again the article I`m referring too and maybe you will finally get it, but I`m guessing not...

To have actually not rubbished every point made by LTB and myself, but you have actually IGNORED every point. You are looking at the issue purely through the eyes of Presley which a ridiculous thing to do. If anyone has brought nothing to the table, it is yourself.

Not that most jazz or blues or even rock artists are truly getting royalty payments after all these years. Again, a few superstars are the ones who really get paid and that's about it. Even Elvis doesn't receive a dime for pre-1973 work. At least though he got some money. And once again, PD does not preclude an artist making money from his performances. He/she can put out a compilation and bring home all the money rather than a mere royalty. They also unlike with a record company can, for once have complete say in what they put out.

MRS has done fine work and provided healthy competition to Sony. Their 50s live compilation, which was much criticized, arguably led to the release of that December Hayride show on a single disc by Sony. Sony in all their fan friendly generosity decided to put out a new valuable set of Elvis recordings on a more than $100 plus box that contained nothing else the fans already didn't have. MRS by providing competition helped spur Sony to a sensible single disc release. A central tenet of capitalism is that competition is good.

MRS has done sterling work. The GI Blues box I mentioned had very fine, if not master tape level sound, and was beautifully presented. Again, it was only after MRS made their record that Sony countered with an FTD. Hell they had a decade to do it and only responded after MRS did their work. Competition is good. The video that MRS put together of the fair footage was another invaluable piece of work. Some have an erection here against MRS but it's founded on really nothing save mistaking corporate profits for artistic protection.

And let's the remember the real advantage that Sony has is access to the master tapes. However, not everything is in their possession and not everyone wants to work with them. The PD law previously gave people the opportunity to share their Elvis treasures without having to deal with Sony. What if tomorrow someone came out with the tapes of Elvis jamming with the Golden Gate Quartet and Sony didn't meet their price? That would mean there would be no chance for the tape to be heard.

It was a great law and it's a shame it's being gutted for corporate profits.

EPE still continues to get publisher´s royalties no matter when the songs were recorded.

ELVIS THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC No.98 - DECEMBER 2012 page 26,27 and 28 TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS? by Luther Moore

the price you pay for one or two cheapo PD releases will get you this issue above, after you have done that, read read and read again the article I`m referring too and maybe you will finally get it, but I`m guessing not...

To have actually not rubbished every point made by LTB and myself, but you have actually IGNORED every point. You are looking at the issue purely through the eyes of Presley which a ridiculous thing to do. If anyone has brought nothing to the table, it is yourself.

spend some money and buy the mag you cheapie Pd supporter instead of choosing to be a fool, fool ,fool

ELVIS THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC No.98 - DECEMBER 2012 page 26,27 and 28 TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS? by Luther Moore

the price you pay for one or two cheapo PD releases will get you this issue above, after you have done that, read read and read again the article I`m referring too and maybe you will finally get it, but I`m guessing not...

To have actually not rubbished every point made by LTB and myself, but you have actually IGNORED every point. You are looking at the issue purely through the eyes of Presley which a ridiculous thing to do. If anyone has brought nothing to the table, it is yourself.

spend some money and buy the mag you cheapie Pd supporter instead of choosing to be a fool, fool ,fool

I support the PD companies who give me material I can't buy elsewhere, nor ever will be able to. You clearly misunderstand that fact, as you also misunderstand that PD releases are "cheap" in the main. Once again, such an article will, like yourself, view the issue from one point of view, Elvis. And, frankly, there is more to life than one man.

as you also misunderstand that PD releases are "cheap" in the main

sorry I meant you were cheap

And, frankly, there is more to life than one man.

if you actually seen my collection that spans over 35 yrs you wouldn`t make that comment