On Sat, 23 Jul 2022 16:57:58 -0500, Dave Garrett <
da...@compassnet.com>
wrote:
>In article <62d7ff47.493828171@localhost>,
>
eichlertwothed...@comcast.net says...
>
>> I recently found out about the latest Zappa release, the 6 disc "Erie"
>> boxed set. So I checked it out on Amazon - holy crap, $127! That's
>> over $21 per disc. Why is that thing so expensive?
>>
>> So then I started looking at some other big releases from recent
>> years. The Zappa Family Trust really seems like they're trying to
>> gouge a retirement fund out of the remaining fanbase that still buys
>> physical product:
>
>They aren't going to be needing to sell any more releases to beef up the
>retirement fund, as they just sold FZ's entire catalog to Universal
>Music:
>
>
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/universal-buys-frank-zappa-s-music-
>catalog-from-family-trust-271656594013
I splurged and got myself the Halloween '73 and Halloween '81 boxed
sets for my birthday, and was somewhat surprised to see in the fine
print on the back of each disc case, "UMe A Universal Music
Enterprises Release, (P)(C) UMG Recordings, Inc."
Those sets are from 2019 and 2020, so it seems that Universal has been
releasing Frank's music for a while. In fact, checking other recent
albums I see the UMe stamp on a couple releases from 2012 (the
earliest one seems to be the "Understanding America" compilation) and
it's on most of the releases from 2013 and after.
So I'm kind of confused on what it means that Universal just bought
Frank's catalog. Does it just mean that they can now release or
reissue whatever they want without having to work with the Zappa
family? Bet Rykodisc would have loved to have that deal.
-- Bob