Paul McCartney is coming full circle.
After years at Concord Records, successor to Hear Music, McCartney has signed a worldwide deal with Universal Music Group's Capitol Records label. This new agreement brings all of the superstar's solo works beginning with 1970's McCartney to the Capitol fold, and also encompasses a new solo album that is currently in the works.
McCartney commented in a statement: "This is genuinely exciting for me. Not only was Capitol my first U.S. record label, but the first record I ever bought was Gene Vincent's 'Be-Bop-A-Lula' on the Capitol label." The deal will take effect for all of his catalogue recordings beginning in July 2017. It's promised that "a comprehensive plan for the artist's catalogue is being conceived by Capitol and Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) - in conjunction with the artist and his management team."
UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grange remarked that Macca's return to the label is "a homecoming of one of the greatest musical artists of all time to the label that first helped bring his incredible music to the world...Paul's astonishing career has shown no limits - in creativity, in commercial longevity, and in its impact on people and cultures in every corner of the globe. We are thrilled at both Capitol and UMG to be able to contribute to the next chapter."
Capitol chairman/CEO Steve Barnett added, "Paul McCartney's association with Capitol has long defined so much of our historic legacy, and all of us here are extremely proud and honored that he has chosen to come back home. Paul's indelible contributions to our culture are second to none, and his constant evolution as an artist and performer continues to inspire and enrich the lives of countless millions of people. We are overjoyed that Paul will be creating new music for years to come, and that Capitol will be helping to present it to the world."
The new pact likely means that the next installment of McCartney's long-running Archive Collection, a multi-format expanded reissue of 1989's Flowers in the Dirt, will arrive under the Capitol banner. Watch this space for more news on Macca's upcoming plans as soon as they are revealed!
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I really don't care who is distributing the catalog. It must be really exciting for business having all of McCartney's solo catalog in the halls with the Beatles where, no doubt, they'll have greater leverage to work with him on Beatles material (which is what I expect Capitol is really buying). However...waiting a year for the next reissue? I hope not. This series has been going on for 6 years at a snails pace. Seems like the 21 months between the last proper reissues (Tug of War / Pipes of Peace) and July 2017 would be exceptionally long for Flowers in the Dirt to surface. As a release Pure McCartney now makes total sense. A contract fulfilling compilation. Also making sense as to why there isn't a greater amount of newly mastered material that hadn't seen release amongst the Concord series.
Only bad thing is that they will most likely reissue the albums first in Apple, then on columbia, then back on capitol, and then on concord...yet again !!!! They'll tack a few unreleased tracks on there to make fans buy the friggin' things yet again....
I'd rather have unreleased than updated remix versions. ( none of which were any good )
I thought I was the only one who thought the Tug of War remix sounded like poop. Way too much compression.
A more alarming concern is Capitol Records' plan to no longer offer music on CD or L.P. after 2018. According to who? According to late 1960's/early 1970's Beach Boys engineer Stephen Desper, posting at http://www.smileysmile.net in a thread about The Beach Boys "Sunflower" SACD. Capitol intends to only offer music on "files" after 2018. But, if the largest download seller, Apple's iTunes Store gradually shuts down over the next two years(in favor of offering music only for rental via streaming), we could be looking at a situation where future Capitol Records releases (after 2018) can't be purchased in any form that consumers can permanently posess. After initially denying that they planned to gradually shut down all iTunes stores over the next 2 years, Apple DID shut down one iTunes store and changed over to offering only streaming in at least one Southeast Asian country.
Since the dawn of recorded music in 1877, consumers have been able to buy music recordings to posess them permanently as a collection. When the day comes when I can't buy a music recording to permanently posess it, I'm out of here. I've been a music collector for 50 years(since 1966). Rental-only music? No way,Jose.
If Paul McCartney is going to offer further McCartney and/or Beatles vault materials to people of his generation, music collectors who want to buy "Physical Product", it will have to be within the next two years. Time is running out.
So by forcing music lovers to purchase downloaded content or stream they will make it easier for customers to get music via the p2ps.
I agree. NOT a fan of iTunes; I want something I can physically hold in my hand. I use iTunes sparingly, usually if I only want one track and the whole album costs a fortune otherwise.
Well, this is distressing news. I had not heard this. What an idiotic move it that is what they indeed intend to do. I wonder if they will relax their licensing policies and allow other reissue labels access to their vaults to put out physical product?
Ha ha ha, let them they will just be sabotaging themselves. Does anyone really think the younger demographic that prefers files to physical media are going to run out and get McCartney solo stuff in droves? Fat chance. Glad I got all the McCartney I need (as well as a 4000 cd collection). I'll be fine if I never buy another piece of music in any form. In fact, they will be saving me from myself if I don't have the option to buy another repackaged money grab that completest, idiots like me can't resist.
I don't believe it anyway. To turn their backs on physical media would be turning away money. Whatever Stephen Desper said is out of context.
I tend to side with Bill B. That's like having the goose that lays the golden eggs, but now the goose will just issue photos of the eggs. They'll all starve!
And one other thing, if Universal is planning on downloads only they better get it together. Their Prue Audio site needs work. I bought some bluray audio discs with download code. Half the albums I got are faulty, bad tracks, incomplete albums.
I tried numerous times to contact them, but o reply. Some of these albums are a gig or 2, but some are huge. One is 11.7 gigs.
Generally, Universal doesn't reply to any music consumers. The "Disc 3" in my Beach Boys-Pet Sounds 4-CD + BluRay box looks like it has been raked over gravel, though, amazingly, it DOES play. Tried to contact Universal Music through their website. They ignored me.
By the way, I didn't create the expression "raked over gravel". it was created by another consumer of this same boxed set (posting on Steve Hoffman's forums) who encountered the same situation with the "disc 3" of THEIR "Pet Sounds" box. The marks are apparently in the reflective layer of the disc.
Disc 3....The Beach Boys Live in the Quarry!