Fania Catalog in hands of new owners?

Abayarde

Abayarde

Son Montuno
just as received this morning from Descarga...

Fania in Flux ...Again
Observant salsa collectors out there have probably noticed that the Fania reissue program at Codigo music has, pretty much, hit a brick wall.

According to our calculations, except for compilations and a few packages (ie Asalto Navideño and Our Latin Thing), it has been seven or eight months since any official reissues have been released. To make matters worse, some of the Codigo reissues which have been released are already out-of-print and unavailable.

The reason, we have learned, is that Codigo's distribution is changing hands. This means that until the new distributor (Red) begins to release product, the existing stock will start to quickly dry up and disappear. We could be wrong, but it sounds like the reissue program will be, once again, starting from scratch.

Sound familiar?

The same thing has occurred twice within recent memory. First, in 2005, when Emusica bought Fania from the Masucci family, and, second, when Codigo purchased the label from Emusica in 2009. At one time (pre-2005) the nearly 1500 title catalog was readily available on cd. Since then, only a few hundred titles have seen the light of day. Hard times for both retailers and collectors, indeed.

We will do our best to keep you posted as more details about the Fania reissue program unfold. In the meantime, you might consider stocking up on titles you are missing. They might disappear for a long time...
 
I stopped downloading from emusic in 2009 and went to check what they had and loads of songs I had previously downloaded were not available :(

There was a licence issue I guess and know what you mean about the greatest hits of the usual suspects.
 
My personal opinion, and not that it matters or is going to make a difference, But I was blessed to perform with the Fania Recording Artists when those records were being made in the early mid-70.

The FANIA collection and it's Historical Significance to Latin Music and the influence it still has to the "Salsa" of today, shouldn't be a hard Sale! Sounds like it's real scary behind the scenes. Wonder what "Details" are in the fine print, that it continues to have to change hands. Hope the next group of people involved...show some respect! Just saying...
 
Based on Wikipedia info, Red is a Sony Music subsidiary.

Hope they don't adopt the same strategy from their base owner. We know how difficult is to find original recordings from the Columbia/CBS catalog, specially their latin divisions.

Most of their CD releases in the last 20 years from older recordings are compilations. In the 90's, they issued several individual Latin titles but once they were sold, we haven't seen them anymore. Still, a lot of their latin releases were never digitally available.

My sister is a big fan of Miami Sound Machine. We are still waiting for the release of their first recordings on CD; just a few modest compilations with a mix of recent hits in English are the only available offers. I've managed to bring her memories back by recording her original CBS cassettes on CD's.

Let see what happens...
 
This was my biggest fear. Sony owning the Fania Catalog. Sony is notorious for buying collections and doing nothing with them. Universal is another one that has a boat load of latin music mainly Salsa that has not been released. Universal owns the Rodven catalog (Frankie Ruiz, Eddie Santiago, Marvin Santiago, Tommy Olivencia) 1980's work and RMM catalog (Domingo Quinones, Tony Vega, Tito Nieves, Celia Cruz) 1990's work. Other than a hand full of releases from the most popular artist no others have been released.

When a big company lands a Latin catalog the chances of re-release go way down. They want to make money so only the most popular artists will get re-releases. The more obscure artist will never see the light of day.

Abayarde said:
Based on Wikipedia info, Red is a Sony Music subsidiary.

Hope they don't adopt the same strategy from their base owner. We know how difficult is to find original recordings from the Columbia/CBS catalog, specially their latin divisions.

Most of their CD releases in the last 20 years from older recordings are compilations. In the 90's, they issued several individual Latin titles but once they were sold, we haven't seen them anymore. Still, a lot of their latin releases were never available digitally.

My sister is a big fan of Miami Sound Machine. We are still waiting for the release of their first recordings on CD; just a few modest compilations with a mix of recent hits in English are the only available offers. I've managed to bring her memories back by recording her original CBS cassettes on CD's.

Let see what happens...
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Salsabor! said:
This was my biggest fear. Sony owning the Fania Catalog. Sony is notorious for buying collections and doing nothing with them. Universal is another one that has a boat load of latin music mainly Salsa that has not been released. Universal owns the Rodven catalog (Frankie Ruiz, Eddie Santiago, Marvin Santiago, Tommy Olivencia) 1980's work and RMM catalog (Domingo Quinones, Tony Vega, Tito Nieves, Celia Cruz) 1990's work. Other than a hand full of releases from the most popular artist no others have been released.

When a big company lands a Latin catalog the chances of re-release go way down. They want to make money so only the most popular artists will get re-releases. The more obscure artist will never see the light of day.
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I hope Codigo or the new owners do their homework based on international markets to catch up with a wide variety of buyers that may build up affordable business for both parties. Yes, is possible to make profits from all this treasures but they need to research (specially marketing research) and ask more people, promoters and artists with deeper Salsa knowledge.

Give the public what pirates can't. CD's and downloads with full documentations from original releases, photo galleries, videos.

Código is doing an excellent job including original releases data on individual re-releases, including credits that are not listed in the LP version and liner notes. Still, after almost three years their catalog on individual releases is quite limited.

From 1988 to 2005, Fania released over 1100+ individual recordings. Even the slower selling CD's were sold then. Here's proof that this catalogs are profitable.

This also applies for Universal. It's a shame that Rodven and RMM full catalog is reduced to oddly chosen compilations with no credits and no historical data that may inform new Salseros. Checked recently the "Oro Salsero" re-releases, now reduced to one CD, and they are now just a big joke.

At this date, the only winners are the pirates. no matter if they are organized or not, they are making big money by re-releasing full albums with original art from all this labels. they are available in most legal stores because they are the only choice.

I don't see what is the big business in paying top dollars for the legal rights of all this historic recordings if they store them in Oblivion and let others make big profits with no consequences.
 
Abayarde said:
I don't see what is the big business in paying top dollars for the legal rights of all this historic recordings if they store them in Oblivion and let others make big profits with no consequences.
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Hoarding. So they can release "the new shi t". Or re-re-release the same oldies goldies.
 
Abayarde said:
Based on Wikipedia info, Red is a Sony Music subsidiary.

My sister is a big fan of Miami Sound Machine. We are still waiting for the release of their first recordings on CD; just a few modest compilations with a mix of recent hits in English are the only available offers. I've managed to bring her memories back by recording her original CBS cassettes on CD's.

Let see what happens...
Click to expand...

Back in the late 90s I came across a CD version of "A toda maquina" and that's my favorite album, especially "Dingui-Li Bangui," even if CBS did release in one of the "Exitos" albums. Sorry I didn't mean stray off the subject! I'm a big fan of the old MSM!
 
Smejmoon said:
Not really. How many big players are there nowadays? Two/Three? Once you get huge market share you form a trust and set arbitrary prices.
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This makes sense if they have most of their catalogs available. You can't have profits -no matter how arbitrary they are- if you keep most of your catalogs unreleased.

On the contrary, what I've seen in recent years are limited releases and compilations at budget prices that may look appealing only for new Salseros.

What I'm suggesting is not new. Is what Fania already done while releasing CD's until 2005. Most of their catalog available with CD's selling like pancakes at regular prices.

Results were not surprising: Fania happy, Collectors happy and New Salseros happy. :cheers:
 
njisc2010 said:
Back in the late 90s I came across a CD version of "A toda maquina" and that's my favorite album, especially "Dingui-Li Bangui," even if CBS did release in one of the "Exitos" albums. Sorry I didn't mean stray off the subject! I'm a big fan of the old MSM!
Click to expand...

MSM's first releases on CBS are "Miami Sound Machine" (1980), "Otra Vez" (1981), "Rio" (1982) and "A Toda Máquina" (1983). If released on CD format, it must be a limited edition in the mid-80's. At that time Columbia/CBS CD catalog was limited and expensive. Very very rare items.
 
Abayarde said:
just as received this morning from Descarga...

Fania in Flux ...Again
Observant salsa collectors out there have probably noticed that the Fania reissue program at Codigo music has, pretty much, hit a brick wall.

According to our calculations, except for compilations and a few packages (ie Asalto Navideño and Our Latin Thing), it has been seven or eight months since any official reissues have been released. To make matters worse, some of the Codigo reissues which have been released are already out-of-print and unavailable.

The reason, we have learned, is that Codigo's distribution is changing hands. This means that until the new distributor (Red) begins to release product, the existing stock will start to quickly dry up and disappear. We could be wrong, but it sounds like the reissue program will be, once again, starting from scratch.

Sound familiar?

The same thing has occurred twice within recent memory. First, in 2005, when Emusica bought Fania from the Masucci family, and, second, when Codigo purchased the label from Emusica in 2009. At one time (pre-2005) the nearly 1500 title catalog was readily available on cd. Since then, only a few hundred titles have seen the light of day. Hard times for both retailers and collectors, indeed.

We will do our best to keep you posted as more details about the Fania reissue program unfold. In the meantime, you might consider stocking up on titles you are missing. They might disappear for a long time...
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I guess I'll go ahead and set the record straight.

Codigo Music remains the owner of the catalog and has no plans to sell it! The only change is that they have moved their distribution to Sony's independent distributor: Red. However, this does not mean very much for the consumer except the music will be in more stores now.

The advantage of using Red is that they have an extended network of outlets to which they can send the products; which means that eventually there will be more product available.

Codigo, and Codigo only, decides what gets released.
 
What descarga.com wrote was a clever way to drum up some quick sales!

Codigo is on its own timetable. We all want them to re-release more albums from obscure artists, and more rare albums from the well-known artists. Keep in mind that they have to do what makes business sense for them. They need to make money. To the extent that they can give us what we want, and generate enough sales to keep them in business, they will.
 
The thing is rareza keep releasing obscure music illegally the the owners are holding on to. Prodland, descarga and the rest are selling them (although I checked earlier and descarga seem to have recentl discountinued rareza items...again....for now).
 
nowhiteshoes said:
The thing is rareza keep releasing obscure music illegally the the owners are holding on to. Prodland, descarga and the rest are selling them (although I checked earlier and descarga seem to have recentl discountinued rareza items...again....for now).
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Yes, that's quite problematic!
 
food for thought...

In Puerto Rico, Código catalog in legal stores is very limited. Most of the available titles are compilations (A Man and His Music, La Herencia, Greatest Hits and Historia De La Salsa series). Individual recordings can be counted in no more than 30 units. Salsa shelves are getting smaller.

A few eMusica releases are still available, but rare.

Since people are asking for more individual Fania recordings, the only option for sellers is getting them from questionable distributors as those from Descarga.

There's also another ones that are shamelessly selling copies from original Fania CD's released until 2005. Changes in artwork are minimal. Since they look legit they are making serious money.

For each day this people spread this practice, more difficult is gonna be to the actual owners to get a chance to sell their legit catalog.
 
Abayarde said:
Since people are asking for more individual Fania recordings, the only option for sellers is getting them from questionable distributors as those from Descarga.

There's also another ones that are shamelessly selling copies from original Fania CD's released until 2005. Changes in artwork are minimal. Since they look legit they are making serious money.

For each day this people spread this practice, more difficult is gonna be to the actual owners to get a chance to sell their legit catalog.
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Yes, all this is problematic. Piracy is a huge problem for all music right now. The best option is to buy digital files through Fania's official website.

This is little consolation for people like me who want the liner notes and cover illustrations, but what can we do? The situation is what it is.
 
El Caobo said:
Yes, all this is problematic. Piracy is a huge problem for all music right now. The best option is to buy digital files through Fania's official website.

This is little consolation for people like me who want the liner notes and cover illustrations, but what can we do? The situation is what it is.
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are the liner notes and cover illustrations included when you buy the digital files?
 
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