Bad news for music lovers: Fantasy Studios, building closed. Get your OJC CD's now!!

Hey, um...how is it we've got members of just about every discipline in the music business working here - but I've never seen a post from anybody working at Iron Mountain...?

Or do they just employ orcs and trolls...?

 

Is this what you were looking for? Amazon OJC

What a tragedy this is.... :thumbsdn:

 

2007 is shaping up to be (in many ways) music's worst year ever!

 

Thanks, but what I meant was looking for OJC titles within the Newbury Comics storefront on Amazon.

I've wondered that myself. So much great jazz on those labels.

 

How does buying up CD's of the catalog save the masters tapes?

The label can always re-issue the same CD (digital) without the master tapes.

 

I'm not sure it's about saving the master tapes, but rather about owning something that came from the master tapes rather than what you just described. Something they'd probaby do

 

I hate this for all the staff, and particularly for Stuart. Sounds like he was a lifesaver for a lot of folks, and my bet is he had more to do than he could ever catch up with. Like maybe sorting and labelling those tapes? Or documenting the inventory in a way that would allow another archivist or records professional to work with the vault materials?

Blame that situation and the current one on Concord, not Iron Mountain. If stuff now needs to go to Iron Mountain, it should be going already boxed and labelled by the people that understand the records. In this case only one person knows the records - that is simply stupid business.

I'm viewing this as an archivist (in training) and without having direct experience with Iron Mountain - I'm also a music and history lover.

As an Iron Mountain client you can hire your own archivists to care for your records (which would include cataloging them) at Iron Mountain - obviously this should be done while your business is solvent.

I wouldn't expect your average frontline staffer at a facility to know a 1st generation master from a digital safety copy. Having a staff person there that DOES know is the responsibility of the depositor. If there is not such a person, it is because the depositor won't pay for it.

In this situation, the ideal would be to offer Stuart a limited, but long term assignment to organize this stuff once it gets to Iron Mountain. He may not want to - I wouldn't, the place creeps me out, honestly, like some kind of science fiction "underworld," but anyway it can be done.

Here's an example of how it can and does get done: a REALLY good article from the Washington Post (it's a bit long, but very informative and detailed) about the Corbis Photo Archive and the facility they built and staffed within the Iron Mountain facility:

http://www.wilhelm-research.com/corbis/Corbis_WashPost_Text_Only.pdf

The article addresses the "Once inside Iron Mountain..." issue and the failure of a business to properly care for valuable records, and then attempting to solve the problem. There is lot's there for anyone interested in the subject.

I think this (business closings, industry firings, "emergency" storage decisions) is going to happen a lot more in the future, which makes me very sad and nervous about losing all that history and music that most of us here live for.

It's worth wondering what would be happening without the option of an Iron Mountain type facility. It's also worth wondering what is going to happen to this stuff if Concord decides it can no longer pay for the storage and preservation. I suppose someone would purchase the materials and rights, but there's no guarantee and who knows what they might do with it.

For now, the stuff is safe, and for that much I'm thankful.

 

Ya know, I could have SWORN I drove past a place in the Catskills (NY) that was an Iron Mt. Vault site. Do they have multiple places?

 

Yes, there is a facility in upstate NY, too. Last I heard it was not quite as extensive as the one in PA - I mean, I don't know about the sheer size, but I don't think it offers as much in the way of technology.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a lot of Sony's stuff (music and films) is in the NY facility.

The Library of Congress has a similar facility in development (I think construction is finally finished) in Northern Virginia for audiovisual materials - it is, of course, not a for-profit enterprise. The others are old mines, the LOC facility is actually a remnant of the Cold War, it's a huge, old underground bunker originally meant to withstand a nuclear war. That one, in itself, is a real interesting story.

 

this is indeed bad. the VERY FIRST ELECTRO record, Cybotron's "Clear" was on fantasy first. sad sad day.

 

Jazz is such an important music form for this country...I can't believe we treat such musical treasures like this so haphazzardly. Roy DuNann did many of these and the other engineers often did a great job as well.

This is a real shame. I wish some rich audiophile would buy the inventory and set up a new label.

 

I am not a rabid jazz fan, but I can recognize bad news when I see it. The allusion to Farenheit 451 was quite apt. Another good one is the last scene of the first Indiana Jones movie where the ark of the covenant is stored away, unmarked, in a vast warehouse of similar unmarked crates....lost forever.

I used to work in a bank file room. When I had to train new employees, I always said that a file that was 2-3 spots from the correct place in the drawer might as well be lost forever. If these tapes are not correctly cataloged and boxed, we can say goodbye to them forever.

Looks like I'll be adding to my jazz collection from time to time.

 

I wonder if Concord should have offered the label up as an investment to audiophiles and others who own the company. Certainly the purchase price would not be too high.

Heck, maybe there is a case the Library of Congress should buy it to own the catalog.

 

Sounds like they are just going for immediate, emergency storage and hoping that sometime in the future someone will buy the tapes.

Even if the prices would be relatively low, I don't think the Library of Congress can actually buy things like this - they can "acquire" them, but I think that is generally a combination of a specific donor or foundation giving them money to acquire and the organization with the tapes understanding that it's not really a "business" deal and offering a price that's probably well below market value.

I hedged a lot in how I said that, because I am not very sure on how transactions like this occur. I think the state of disorganization of this collection (based on how it has been described in this thread) also means that any purchaser would know upfront that there is a lot of work to be done with it - work that they might not be able to afford.

 

I think if it is important enough a part of the heritage that they can buy things...

 

Geez, guys, some of you are starting to sound like Chicken Little here. While I have sympathy for anyone losing their job over this, I think it's pretty safe to say that Concord will not be destroying these tapes... only moving them to another vault. Yeah, it might make it harder to dig out the original masters, but since "remastered from the original master tapes" is such a selling point these days I doubt that will change. Concord still has a decent jazz reissue program and they've been putting out some good boxed sets lately as well. There's been little evidence that this will change. Concord also paid a lot of money for Fantasy, so I doubt that they want to shelf their collection anyway; if anything, they might restructure and continue to re-release and expoit their better selling titles. Honestly, the titles most in jeopardy of being "lost," if only temporarily, are some of the more obscure OJC Limiteds - but hell, they hardly sell anyway. I wish some of those were the ones that Steve and Kevin were cutting for LP rather than the Nth version of Miles and Bill Evans.

 

Yes, you are right. For a collection like this, though, it would be really difficult for them - What are we actually talking about for a ballpark price - does anyone know?

I have no doubt they would consider this historically significant and totally in-line with their mission to preserve uniquely american historical works.

I'm trying to find information on their purchasing guidelines, but it's very vague.

I know it would be one of the few things I'd be happy to see my tax dollars purchasing.

 

I'll be curious to read any opinions expressed by John Fogerty on this. IIRC he was happier than a pig in s**t to be back with Fantasy/Concord, believing that they were the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel.

 

http://concordmusicgroup.com/labels/?label=Original+Jazz+Classics

 

It's probably a physical thing. Someone surely wants the (prime, and huge) real estate that is the Fantasy building. Remember, Concord bought the whole Fantasy label assets a couple of years ago. They're just moving them out of a building that was very likely not part of that deal.

That said, the archives without Stuart the archivist are no longer the archives that made the Roy du Nann and the only-just-started Keepnews collections possible. One continues to hope that Concord knows this. The archives are (were) far from disorganized, as implied by posters other than Steve earlier on - I've seen photos of the vaults, and my friends have even visited. Like all libraries, knowing where stuff is and exactly which editions you want for a particular purpose has always required the professional help of the librarian. You really can't expect everything to be in the index. Only rank amateurs in 'the search' will rely on that.

 

Uh huh, yep. But next year may be even worse for some.

The moving of the tape library along with the layoffs is simply a way to save money. They are not trashing any of the tapes.

And I believe that if Steve or anyone else with a good reputation and relationship with Fantasy wants to do a reissue set or series, they are welcome to fly in and go to the Iron Mountain storage room and retrieve the masters needed.

That person may need to rent a room at Motel 6 (or a flee bag motel located out there somewhere in the boonies) and bring along a good portable reel to reel deck to listen on. It gets a bit involved, but it's still workable and can be done.

But when you think about it, there has been Milestone 2-fers, OJC, DCC, AP, Classic, Scorpio, 32bit, RVG, and SACDs and some box sets issued of the material. Demand will slow down somewhat. And when the catalog goes all online, the original masters will not be needed for that.

At least there are CDs and LPs for every price range out there to be gotten. Steve has worked through the catalog several times. Things could be worse for the buyer. It's the employees that are going to have it hard. It is most sad for them.

 

From Iron Mountain's Web site:

"... We manage and deliver comprehensive archiving solutions that preserve and protect your irreplaceable master works, while keeping them within easy reach when you need them."

Why do I not entirely believe this?

Jazz feeds my soul the way nothing else does. This move makes me more than a little uncomfortable.

 

I think it's because the OJC umbrella spanned so many different labels: Prestige, Riverside, Contemporary, Pablo, etc. It's an massive and unwieldy catalog to get a grip on.

 

I'm very bummed out by this news. Having walked through the building at 10th & Parker Streets in Berkeley a number of times over the years, it's sad to know this place is no more. Back in my Polygram days we used to host listening parties at the studio including one particularly memorable one for Queen's "Made In Heaven" album. I also did business on more than a few occasions with the labels' legendary mastering engineer George Horn who cut 12" lacquers for another label I worked for.

I certainly hope someone buys the building and keeps it operating as a recording studio. Much like when the venerable A&M Records Chaplin Lot in Hollywood was shuttered when Universal took ownership of the label, hopefully another company will keep this excellent recording facility from going away permanently. Definitely a sad day to see this local music icon close its doors.