Fania New Release: "Louie Vega and Elements of Life"

[Abayarde]

this came up on email this morning... a new release from Fania?... well, let's see



there's a 1:15 minutes video on youtube... youtube.com/watch?v=WEeyzwLKlL8

video teaser is pretty short and the music background doesn't tell too much. guess we will have to wait until march...

 

[Richie Blondet]

Abayarde,

It's not really a new release. It's just being re-issued under the FANIA label apparently. This recording was released almost 10 years ago. It's pretty much House Music and features different rhythmical elements featured throughout. The woman who appears at the top center standing in a low cut top long dress is ANANE. She's the featured vocalist and is Louie's "wife" in real life.

Uless you're into House Music and DJ turntablism, I would not recommend this to the Hard Core Salsero aficionado,who probably wouldn't dig it...

 

[Abayarde]

Codigo or whoever owns Fania is advertising it like crazy. Would love to see half of that enthusiasm in their huge classic catalog. At least, they are showing their true priorities.

 

[Richie Blondet]

Codigo or whoever owns Fania is advertising it like crazy. Would love to see half of that enthusiasm in their huge classic catalog. At least, they are showing their true priorities.

Bro, tu sabes porque hacen eso? They don't make money with FANIA. It's really an over valued catalog. No amount of remasering will get every die hard fan to re-invest in the same music they probably already own. Unless if its never before released material, and even then it's not going to turn a big profit.

I don't know if they will make money with Louie's music, but House Music has a lot more "legs" in the USA, Europe and Asia club scene than any of those Salsa compilations they keep re-issuing over and over.

Don't be too surprised if the FANIA catalog and all the other subsidiaries wind up being sold to another company sometime in the near future...

 

[Abayarde]

Bro, tu sabes porque hacen eso? They don't make money with FANIA. It's really an over valued catalog. No amount of remasering will get every die hard fan to re-invest in the same music they probably already own. Unless if its never before released material, and even then it's not going to turn a big profit.

that might be right.

but they also might have to consider that almost the whole catalogs aren't available for at least 15 years.

new true salsa enthusiasts can't have enough with compilations. 20 years old original CD releases are selling for several hundreds and rare LP's are still selling the same way.

I wonder why their copyright owners still don't get the message. Until that happens, greedy resellers and pirates are having a blast.

 

[Richie Blondet]

that might be right.

but they also might have to consider that almost the whole catalogs aren't available for at least 15 years.

Could you give more details? Why the 15 year holdout?...

 

[TwoCentsTipper]

that might be right.

but they also might have to consider that almost the whole catalogs aren't available for at least 15 years.

new true salsa enthusiasts can't have enough with compilations. 20 years old original CD releases are selling for several hundreds and rare LP's are still selling the same way.

I wonder why their copyright owners still don't get the message. Until that happens, greedy resellers and pirates are having a blast.

From my perspective, and as a NEW salsa enthusiast, I don't like compilations anymore. I would like to have the option of buying albums instead but as Abayarde pointed out, copyright owners are holding out and why shouldn't they? There is 0 demand for it.

I visited a used record store last weekend browsing for hidden gems. Well I didn't find any. On my way out I spoke to the owner and asked him how often does he receive "latin jazz" because I knew If I asked for guaguanco/guaracha/pachanga etc.. he wouldn't have a clue. Then he said that he had a whole box of it but nobody asks for it, he literaly said no body cared for this stuff. I thought that the guy was joking but he showed me the box, hidden away. It was all new still sealed vinyls. I walked out with:

Joey Cuba Sextet - A collection of the very best
el Rene Grand y su combo new york
The lebron brothers orchestra - The brooklyn bums
Eddie Palmieri - Superimposition
Bobby Valentin - Bad breath
Joe Bataan - Riot
Eddie Palmieri - Mozambique
The latin blues band - take a trip pussycat which has amazing tune which I'm crazy about "Rumba con guaguanco"
Kako & his orchestra Live it up
The Lat-Teens - Buena Gente
and stumbled upon Mucho Macho Machito double record set.

I am fully aware that those are re-issues (they are all available online) and probably not as worth as the originals but still worth enough for me to buy them.

Is any representative of the copyright owners reading this? There are people who want this s***, so get on it and start making things available.

 

[Richie Blondet]

Wait. What copyright holders? What are you guys saying? That music isn't being released because of licensing issues? Whoever owns the catalog owns the music. Most of the songs were registered to FAS Publishing. Who are the holdouts?...

 

[terence]

From my perspective, and as a NEW salsa enthusiast, I don't like compilations anymore. I would like to have the option of buying albums instead but as Abayarde pointed out, copyright owners are holding out and why shouldn't they? There is 0 demand for it.

I visited a used record store last weekend browsing for hidden gems. Well I didn't find any. On my way out I spoke to the owner and asked him how often does he receive "latin jazz" because I knew If I asked for guaguanco/guaracha/pachanga etc.. he wouldn't have a clue. Then he said that he had a whole box of it but nobody asks for it, he literaly said no body cared for this stuff. I thought that the guy was joking but he showed me the box, hidden away. It was all new still sealed vinyls. I walked out with:

Joey Cuba Sextet - A collection of the very best
el Rene Grand y su combo new york
The lebron brothers orchestra - The brooklyn bums
Eddie Palmieri - Superimposition
Bobby Valentin - Bad breath
Joe Bataan - Riot
Eddie Palmieri - Mozambique
The latin blues band - take a trip pussycat which has amazing tune which I'm crazy about "Rumba con guaguanco"
Kako & his orchestra Live it up
The Lat-Teens - Buena Gente
and stumbled upon Mucho Macho Machito double record set.

I am fully aware that those are re-issues (they are all available online) and probably not as worth as the originals but still worth enough for me to buy them.

Is any representative of the copyright owners reading this? There are people who want this s***, so get on it and start making things available.

WOW!!!!!!!!....Lady luck at work .

 

[Abayarde]

Could you give more details? Why the 15 year holdout?...

In their first CD Releases (from 1989 to 2005), Fania released almost their whole catalogs (Tico, Alegre, Inca, Vaya, Fania, Barbaro, Nuestra, International, Cotique, etc.) including titles that people may describe as "slow sellers". Time judged correctly that move because all were sold; today people pay big money for the very few copies on sale.

Before 1996-7, 4 to 5 new releases were available monthly. Fania bins in record stores were pretty impressive.

After those years, they slowed down the pace because most of their catalogs were already available. Efforts for releasing recordings with no master tapes were done with the help of collectors and their well conserved LP's (including Roberto Padilla). This was mostly coordinated by José Gallo.

Before 2000, copies availability started to slow down dramatically. Piracy boomed and record stores reduced their Fania inventories. When the first rumors of Fania selling their catalogs struck hard in 2004, collectors and inventory hoarders swept the remaining inventory.

After this, we can classify this original releases as instant classics. eMusica and Codigo never had plans to release most of their extensive catalogs, even when they had a chance to make them available only for downloads.

If someday this became a reality we would love to see additional options like the full art and credits for each album. Today, they sell only the music (NO full art and NO full credits).

 

[TwoCentsTipper]

WOW!!!!!!!!....Lady luck at work .

For me or the shop owner who at some point wanted to burn the records?

 

[TwoCentsTipper]

Wait. What copyright holders? What are you guys saying? That music isn't being released because of licensing issues? Whoever owns the catalog owns the music. Most of the songs were registered to FAS Publishing. Who are the holdouts?...

My understanding is that the copyright owner is the one who holds ownership over the recording itself, not the work. It can be a publisher, a record label or even the artist. But i'm not too sure about this, as copyright issues are extremely complicated.

 

[TwoCentsTipper]

My understanding is that the copyright owner is the one who holds ownership over the recording itself, not the work. It can be a publisher, a record label or even the artist. But i'm not too sure about this, as copyright issues are extremely complicated.

Nevermind what I said. I'll try to rephrase. When Codigo aquired Fania they became the copyright owners of the catalogues. So it's up to them to repress, reprint or to whatever they want.