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Steve Jobs wants to sweeten iTunes with out-of-print and unreleased recordings from the vaults of the five majors. (They have already begun to do so with the Motown anniversary, for which Motown provided digital masters for their first 45 singles and 45 LPs. Even knowing the miserly reputation of the US record industry, I find it amazing that 95 percent of the Motown catalog is currently unavailable in the US.)
Warner Bros. has had a boutique label for years in Rhino Handmade. Universal recently added a copycat, Hip-O Select. The requests posted to the messageboard for the latter (presently offline) are not particularly encouraging. The former occasionally releases some gems but (so far) nothing completely compelling (the complete session tapes for the Monkees’ Headquarters came close.) If iTunes is given the opportunity to cherry-pick from the last 50 years, it could be great. My favourite label, however, will not be involved.
bp: 114/70
