I keep hearing bad rumors that Rhino/WB is going to be history in a few weeks...

SACD or DVD-A are great formats, but the introduction was 5 years too late... in 5-7 years downloading music rules the business. I also doubt small independent labels will see a renaissance like in the 70/80/90's... this is history!!!

The big majors will do their own thing!

 

Steve--have you, or anyone here, actually heard about them closing the Rhino division, or just laying off a lot of employees (including Rhino old-timers)? That's what I got from your post.

I think it stinks, too...and I think Cornyn will need to add a chapter or two to his book. This is too reminiscent of Black Thursday when UMG shut down A&M, Geffen and Motown on the same day.

 

I've waited to reply to this thread, hoping a bit of sunshine would shine on these proceeding, but I guess that it's NOT to be!

While I realize that the original "RHINO" no longer existed as it once did, however I felt that their venture with the WEA deal was a logical NEXT step. Rhino had pretty much milked the average resources for reissues, so why not tie in with a major player to keep the ball rolling? It's sad that many fine people will lose their jobs because of this new change, but being that the WSM arm will continue to reissue more old WEA reissues, it's not a COMPLETE death for Rhino.

Now I agree with Rudy about the whole "A&M" and "Motown" shut downs...THAT was truly sad! Now there you have two great examples of record labels that were lone wolves that started from nothing and truly established MANY classic artists. Rhino, while a GREAT reissue label gave us "Wild Man Fischer" and "Fish Heads"...need I say more?

It ALL boils down to the fact that Radio and The Record Industry in general, is a BIG FAT AMERICAN SELLOUT! I honestly don't know just what "we" (you and me) are going to do for employment, as sooner or later it will effect ALL of us! It hit me two years ago and I still see no bright future and I know that, sadly, many of my other "media" friends will also feel this "REALITY" bite very soon!

Chris C

 

The next three will be Almost Blue, Goodbye Cruel World and Kojak Variety.

 

Wouldn't Rhino attract a much larger community of fans of they chose to reissue on hybrid SACD's? Reissue campaigns of the Stones, Sting, Pink Floyd, etc, have sold millions of copies. I can't help but thinking that they would probably flourish by now had Sony bought them instead of Warner back then...
-wolf

 

Sundazed is releasing the Vanilla Fudge Mono on vinyl. That's HUGE in my book. (Yum!)

I have to agree with Grant, but I really DID like the Gladys Knight/Pips Hip-o. I didn't check to see if it was slammed, but the content was good and the sound wasn't too bad. But every good song I thought of was there.

I really, REALLY wish Hip-o would lay off the slamming of the levels through. I still get itchy from the T-Rex compilation which was thoughtfully compiled and then ruined for sound. Arrgh. Hey, I'm a FAN Hip-O! Stop messing with my favorite stuff!

 

I still think many in the music industry are hedging their bets, or just plain stonewalling. Many don't believe that EITHER SACD or DVD-A will be lucrative markets. ONE of them will be- but nobody wants to choose a format. They also want huge royalties IF they will even license their catalogue to a third party. Remember- when MFSL first submerged in 1999(?)- didn't they owe HUGE sums of royalties to many of the majors for back-issue re-issues?

Someday- the majors may want to jump in- but why let someone else get revenue for it in the meantime?

I should have prefaced this with a real BIG IMHO- so forgive me- this is just my opinion!


Chris

 

Most would argue that those issues sold because of their content, not because they were hybrids. Despite what the spin doctors would have one believe, hi res does not sell many discs (in either dvd-a or sacd form).

 

One thing I noticed about Rhino in the past decade (maybe more): it seemed like it was just a blanket reissue label for anything in Warner's back catalog. I mean, I've seen a reissue of a Jean-Luc Ponty CD with the Rhino label on it. IOW, it was more like Sony's Legacy label that applied across the board. Almost seemed like abuse of the name.

 

I feel really bad about the end of the era at Rhino and Warners as we knew them. But Rhino's success in recent years was due to the access to the tapes from the Waner Music Group. They did an incredible job sure, but it was their reissue of other labels work that was what they were good at. So they generated cash flow from other labels' assets in the organization. The Cars material was Elekta of course. So Rhino can not be given total credit for sales of new Cars issues, regardless is Cars issues went up in sales after Rhino treatment. Rhino was a "creative services" dept. in a way. But not a mainline of valuable assets in any way. They should have all seen it coming, and they likely did.

Jeff