New vinyl beatlegs
An upcoming EP with unreleased radio recordings.
Apple and Universal Music are both either choosing to look the other way, regarding Beatles releases from the small record company 1960’s Records / Rhythm & Blues or there is copyrights loophole in these old recordings. Oddly enough, the company continues undaunted to offer new releases with The Beatles, without lawsuits arising against them. So whether to call these bootlegs or actually legal releases, we’re not really sure. here are two upcoming releases, with historical material in the form of an EP with eight tracks from a BBC radio recording from July 17th, 1964 and an LP with various concert recordings from late 1963 (including five “She Loves You”s, five “Twist and Shout”s and three “From Me To You”s….)
Check them out over at Horizons Music:
7 inch EP at 33 1/3 r.p.m.: From Us To You #4 July 17th, 1964
Somewhat interesting. Could this be a reaction to the issue that something must be publicly released and (at some point) available for copywrite purposes?
Pure bullshit
No CD means no sale for me. I’m not jumping on the vinyl bandwagon again.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong about any of this, but:
The 2011 EU copyright extension (which is *presumably* the practice that the UK also still follows) states that recordings are copyrighted for 70 years after the recordings have been published (released), or for 50 years “after the performance if it is not published”.
I have several of the 1960’s Records / Rhythm & Blues releases myself, and I *think* they have always been careful not to release any material that has been officially released, and that therefore those recordings are public domain.
As I’m sure many will remember, in 2013 Universal released a compilation entitled “The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963” on iTunes in order to extend the copyright of those recordings. This is a practice they have not kept up, which in effect means that anyone is free to release any Beatles recordings that have not been officially released within 50 years of the songs being recorded.
So, assuming that 1960s/R&B have indeed stuck to only releasing recordings that are out of copyright, Apple/Universal really have nothing to sue them *for*.
These recordings aren’t owned by Apple/Universal anyway, so they have no legal basis for claiming a breach of copyright.
The BBC recordings are/were owned by the BBC, who might, therefore, have a justifiable claim of breach. Unless, as you say, the EU statue of limitations on unpublished recordings applies.
I love the look and presentation of these EPs from this label, and have several of them. My main criticism of these is that you have the last song on one side, followed by the lads’ announcements of the next song. Then that side ends! Maybe it’s to do with how much material you can fit onto a 45rpm record, but the sound quality is good throughout, better than my old vinyl bootlegs I bought in the 80s.