Third-Party Record Labels

by | Jan 12, 2018 | Commentary & Observations, Music Business

While browsing online at new releases for 2018, I came across something that kind of caught my eye….

Anyone that even casually knows me knows that I am a huge Oak Ridge Boys fan. I have every recording by them I can possibly get my hands on dating back to the mid-60’s when Duane Allen and William Lee Golden first joined the group. I have ever commercial and promotional recording done by the current lineup that includes Golden, Allen, Joe Bonsall, and Richard Sterban dating from 1973 to present. I even have some recordings from older incarnations featuring Smitty Gatlin, Herman Harper, Willie Wynn, Ron Page, and Tommy Fairchild.

The older stuff, of course, is not all that hard to find. The group recorded frequently for Skylite Records prior to Allen joining the group, and those masters have been leased out more times than a U-Haul truck. Just go on Amazon and do a search for Oaks music; you’ll find a TON of third-party label releases, often with cheap artwork and whatever publicity photo the label can get a hold of featuring the current group to try to move a few units.

Pictured: NOT a bootleg

That’s why, when I came across a planned new release, I initially dismissed it as more of the same, but the more I investigated it, the more intrigued I became. That release was titled When I Sing For Him: The Complete Columbia Recordings & RCA Singles, and it releases on March 2nd by a company called Real Gone Music. Given that the Columbia recordings were from 1973-1976 and the RCA singles were from 1990-1992 (and included Steve Sanders in place of Golden), this seemed like a somewhat odd combination to be releasing. I also had seen some of these songs show up on bootleg releases using audio ripped from YouTube (one of which was posted by myself, so I knew exactly what the source was!). I was certain that someone had just made vinyl-to-CD copies and were trying to make a quick buck before they got busted.

While looking for more info on the release, I came across this site that included a one-sheet description of the album. It proclaimed that an engineer has “remastered every track at Sony’s Battery Studios from the original tapes,” which means that someone has put some time and money into this release. The record company also knew enough to include any non-album releases from the Columbia years (singles, B-sides, etc.), so they obviously are familiar with the Oaks’ catalog as a whole.

In fact, Real Gone Music is joining a growing number of media distributors who are taking advantage of niche markets. Companies are looking for older, forgotten titles that the original owners have no interest in re-issuing, and are investing heavily not just in re-releasing the material as a budget item, but remastering the titles for a new generation.

One of the more successful such companies is Shout! Factory, who has built a very successful venture by obtaining the rights to release films and even TV series that may not have a huge global market, but have a very loyal niche fan base. The films’ original owners/distributors have no interest in spending time and money on re-issuing these films (aside from a bargain bin release), so Shout! leases the film, invests in a restoration, and announces limited-run special editions (one such film, the controversial 1984 slasher film, Silent Night, Deadly Night, actually sold out on pre-order). They also have streaming channels on devices such as Roku where you can watch some of these releases (I’ve binge-watched the 1960’s Dennis The Menace series already on that channel, actually).

This got me to wondering (scary, I know!)….

There are countless southern gospel albums that have been released over the years, both on a major (at the time) label and independently. Some of these albums have seen release on CD now and then, but a large portion of them have never been heard since their initial pressing (beyond some vinyl-to-digital rips found on YouTube and a whole slew of members-only Facebook groups). Why isn’t there a label willing to invest in this vast back catalog of music much like Real Gone Music or Shout! Factory is doing with mainstream releases?

Who WOULDN’T want this on CD? (Credit: Brandon Coomer / Gold City Tribute)

Granted, there have been attempts over the years to give fans a taste of these releases. When Word Music briefly relaunched Canaan Records in the early 2000’s, they re-issued several classic albums from their back catalog, although they weren’t really remastered so much as just converted from analog to digital. Provident Music likewise released some Benson-era catalog titles, only they actually invested in remastering those titles (if you can get a hold of the re-release of the Cathedrals’ Symphony of Praise, I highly recommend it!), but in both cases, those were the original owners releasing the material, not a third-party label that specializes in such releases.

What I would like to see is a company that specializes in obtaining, remastering, and releasing rare albums from SG past. Granted, some masters are so heavily locked down and guarded that they may never see the light of day again (just as Harold Timmons), but given Sony’s apparent willingness to lease out some titles (as evidenced by the above ORB release), maybe there is a chance that some of the classic Heartwarming/Benson albums (which include the Oaks, Rambos, Stamps, Downings, Kingsmen, Gold City, and Cathedrals, just to name a few) might be available for the right investor.

The question then becomes, is there enough of a market for such releases to make such an investment worthwhile…?

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Kyle Boreing

Kyle Boreing

Kyle has been writing for MusicScribe since 2008. He is a musician, producer, arranger, and occasional quartet singer, who pays way too much attention to recordings. He is an alumni of Stamps-Baxter School of Music and has shared the stage with many different artists. He also really likes movies that are "so bad they're good." Visit his website at kyleboreing.com, or follow him on Twitter @kyleboreing.

10 Comments

  1. Bobbie Wiseman

    I read with serious interest in the post today about remastering and issuing Oak Ridge Boys music from Albums? I think to CDs ! I will be interested to see how these will be marketed ….if online that would be easy to use.
    Just read where Gaither has/will release a combo: Gatlin Bros., Oak Ridge & Gaither Vocal band. (2 DVD/2 CD) in package

    Reply
  2. David Bruce Murray

    I can see how it might be worth a company’s time to convert and distributed out of print recordings by Southern Gospel’s more popular groups, but doing it in a physical CD format is a potentially costly risk even with Southern Gospel’s most popular groups even if they’re distributed in some type of print-on-demand arrangement.

    It would probably make more financial sense to release old recordings to the digital market including both streaming and sales channels.

    Reply
  3. Alan Kendall

    I am working on a disc collection in my spare time for fun called “Skylite Sampler”, where I am taking one song from each Skylite album through about 1971 and combining them into one set. It’s quite interesting for a nerd like me. A limited edition “Sampler” box set of gospel record labels would be cool to see on cd, with the more extensive work done for digital.

    Reply
    • David Bruce Murray

      If you’re going to call it Skylite Sampler, you must put a photo on the cover of one of those appetizer sampler platters of food, like you’d get at an Applebee’s/Chili’s type restaurant.

      Reply
  4. Gradie Hartley

    I would be much more likely to invest my money in these older recordings versus buying the newer, over-produced recordings available today. I would be willing to pay even more for live albums since they have seemingly gone the way of the dinosaur.

    I am 41 years old and I believe there are other southern gospel fans in my age range who long for the sound(s) we grew up with more so than what we are hearing now. Especially if someone could get the originals for groups who no longer exist, that would be great and could possibly introduce current fans to groups/songs that may have never had a chance to hear before (For example: Perfect Heart, “Live at the Forum” which I have dusted off recently).

    Reply
  5. Scotty Searan

    I am a diehard ORB fan also. I believe I have most of the original recordings. I don’t have all the compilations down through the years, but I have quite a few.
    Yes I love all the lineups of the ORB.
    My Favorite lineup though was Willie Wynn, Smitty Gatlin, Jim Hamill, Herman Harper and Tommy Fairchild.
    My favorite albums by the ORB: The Solid Gospel Sound and It’s Happening. I had to say 2 because I definitely love these albums. They would definitely be in my Top 10 Favorite albums of all time in Southern Gospel.
    This is the way I like Southern Gospel to sound
    Thought I have these Columbia vinyls I am looking forward to the Cd. I am preordering it today.
    My favorite songs on this project is
    Sailing Toward Home
    It’s Been Done
    Joy Comes in the Morning

    Reply
  6. bfuson0384

    This subject is one of my passions. Unfortunately, many SG artists believe there is no point to investing in endeavors like this because theres not enough profit to justify the work that goes into doing it. Plus theres the matter of master tapes. Do they even exist? Then the labels who own the masters if they exist, are they willing to work out a lease and not charge someone an outrageous amount to purchase the masters. I would love to see an investor come along with a passion for these types of projects. The only way many of these albums will be preserved for another generation would be this avenue. Great article, Kyle!

    Reply
    • Kyle Boreing

      Yes, the first question would be if the masters even still exist. Some labels have resorted to contracting private collectors to source pristine copies since they no longer have the original tapes.

      It’s not just music, either. TV networks scrapped a good portion of their broadcast archive from the 1950’s-1970’s. Most historical shows are lost to history, save for a few kinescopes made for the purpose of west coast time delay.

      Check out this article about label archiving: http://www.billholland.net/words/Labels%20Strive%20to%20Rectify%20Past%20Archival%20Problems.pdf

      Reply
  7. Samuel

    I found some old Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College recordings at a thrift store just a mile down from Heartland Baptist Bible College (its present locations). I mentioned to our sound engineer how great it would be to release digitally remastered versions of these albums, but the man who owns the rights to the masters had a falling out with the school when they moved to OKC. I guess another point to add is whether or not the owner of the masters is friendly to the label.

    Reply
    • Kyle Boreing

      There are plenty of obstacles involved – the owners playing hardball trying to get as high of a deal as possible (or just flat out refusing to license the music), endless red tape with labels that have been bought out/absorbed/shut down, etc. Then there are some groups who are VERY strict with the usage of their name/trademarks (good luck getting ANYTHING with the name Stamps released, for example). Some group owners may not authorize the release of certain projects due to personnel issues.

      If you want an interesting article about ownership of intellectual property, check out this article on the old Batman TV series: https://www.wired.com/2014/11/batman-home-video-finally/. The ownership trail alone was enough to stall an official release, and once that was resolved, it was a question of Fox (owner of the footage) vs Warner Bros (owner of the character) and who would get to release it (WB ultimately wound up releasing it by licensing the footage from Fox).

      Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Record Company Archives | MusicScribe - […] my last article, I wrote about third-party labels who lease masters from record companies in order to invest in…
  2. CD Review: The Oak Ridge Boys – “When I Sing For Him: The Complete Columbia Recordings & RCA Singles” | MusicScribe - […] both DBM and myself are huge Oak Ridge Boys fans, and this particular release (which I’ve referenced in the…

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