Oh, dear.

The war continues. As one who has no understanding whatsoever of royalties and certainly no understanding of the ins and outs, the rights and wrongs, ethical, legal, or otherwise, I find this very depressing.  Surely the recordings included in the Collector's Choice CD cannot in any way be likened to the original studio versions?

They were made at a different time for a different purpose. One set was of studio recordings, the others made, much later, for radio broadcast.  Can UMG really claim any rights in them? They were not made by UMG or for them. They do not possess the physical recordings and so far as I know they have not previously made claims to them.

They represent different periods of Bing's professional life. The issue from Collector's Choice was one of a sequence taken from radio broadcasts and much of the market was  probably from those who wanted them as representative of the broadcasts and/or of the period in question.

Anyone interested in the slightest in Bing would already have had the original studio versions, probably in abundance.  'White Christmas' was after all by far Bing's best selling song and the others named invariably accompanied it on numerous albums. It is difficult to avoid one or other of them on dozens - possibly even hundreds - of Christmas compilations.

I would find it difficult to see where UMG think their losses might arise. Would the non - issue by Collector's Choice have resulted in an increase in UMG sales of the original studio version?  That would be a pretty extraordinary proposition. It might even be that the existence of the issue and the accompanying publicity will have enhanced any sales that UMG might have had, but realistically, how many would want to buy when they already have them? Far better if UMG tackle some of the other neglected material which they have. 

UMG seem to want to jealously protect 'rights' but not then to capitalise appropriately on them.  'I've got it, you can't have it, but by the way, you can't have any substitutes either'.

Their pathetic effort at reissueing White Christmas with Bryn Terfel as an added duettist seems to have failed miserably to live up to their billing, but is perhaps indicative of the fact that there is little headway to be made with the studio recordings of these particular titles.

Edited to correct a couple of grammatical errors.

Last edited by Richard Baker (03/3/2011 9:29 am)

Mr. S did have some small issue during the Capitol/Reprise wars of 1960-1963. I believe he agreed not to record anything done on Capitol for a limited period. Hence the 10th LP from Reprise he released "Sinatra's Sinatra" had several Capitol era recordings redone in stereo.