Yes Catalog Acquired by Warner Music Group

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Blackwood

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https://variety.com/2023/music/news/yes-catalog-acquired-warner-music-1235498598/
The band added in a joint statement: “The entire Yes family came together and worked enthusiastically with Warner Music Group to secure this historic deal, ensuring that these iconic recordings will continue to be curated in the optimum manner to delight their fans across more than five decades, while also finding and developing new audiences for this timeless music.”

Would it be too much to hope that “optimum manner to delight fans” would include some attention in the area of Atmos and box sets?

It’s been slightly disappointing that except for things like Progeny and the Wilson 5.1 mixes, there’s been no major attempt to do much with the back-catalog and old, live recordings in recent years. Instead we mostly get live shows from the current “album” tours.
 
https://variety.com/2023/music/news/yes-catalog-acquired-warner-music-1235498598/


Would it be too much to hope that “optimum manner to delight fans” would include some attention in the area of Atmos and box sets?

It’s been slightly disappointing that except for things like Progeny and the Wilson 5.1 mixes, there’s been no major attempt to do much with the back-catalog and old, live recordings in recent years. Instead we mostly get live shows from the current “album” tours.
Ironically, the YES catalogue has just been MQA encoded and is being released by Warner JAPAN on UHQ~CD in Mini LP cardboard sleeves

https://www.prostudiomasters.com/album/page/30956
 
I would be glad when some of the missing YES albums are released in 5.1 (Tormato, Going for the One, Drama, ...).
Because I've no Atmos my demand for this is low.
But when Steven Wilson would do the remixes and we can get this on BD-A probably we get both. 5.1 + Atmos. And a new stereo too.
 
I would be glad when some of the missing YES albums are released in 5.1 (Tormato, Going for the One, Drama, ...).
Because I've no Atmos my demand for this is low.

When I saw this news today had the same thought as sure would be nice if we could see some more of their music released in 5.1 as you have noted.
Going for the One tour was the first time I saw Yes so would love to see this release getting the surround treatment as well as more of their other albums.
 
When I saw this news today had the same thought as sure would be nice if we could see some more of their music released in 5.1 as you have noted.
Going for the One tour was the first time I saw Yes so would love to see this release getting the surround treatment as well as more of their other albums.
I vote HARD for 90125 and Big Generator to get the surround treatment. We already have near perfection with Steven Wilson’s The Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge juggernauts.

But isn’t Warner one of the weaker labels when it comes to promoting surround music releases?
 
I’ve come to accept that my “logic” isn’t shared by record companies, and that I also legitimately lack a perspective they have which might actually make sense to me if they explained it.

To me, you milk the heck out of a catalog you own (or just acquired in this case), especially older stuff that has a strong fanbase who are ... uh ... not all blessed with oodles of time left on this planet.

In the area of surround, we’ve now had some level of proof – either through SDE or IAA – that there is a market for 5.1 / Atmos. Maybe people aren’t getting rich off it, but there’s gotta be a profit, or why bother?

You’d think that after buying a catalog you’d look in every direction to recoup your investment... some where the profits should be decent (maybe RSD releases, unissued live shows, and general releases of past studio albums which will likely always be good sellers) and material that has some current buzz like “spacial audio.”

I guess the easiest thing to do is to keep pumping out the same stuff. With the Wilson remixes that would at least give people who originally missed it a chance to get it at a good price. Or maybe their intent is simply to make sure the whole catalog is available on streaming in all territories.

But I’d sure love to hope that “optimum manner to delight fans” means something that those of us who love surround or previously unreleased material can get excited about.
 
Would it be too much to hope that “optimum manner to delight fans” would include some attention in the area of Atmos and box sets?
I guess the easiest thing to do is to keep pumping out the same stuff. With the Wilson remixes that would at least give people who originally missed it a chance to get it at a good price. Or maybe their intent is simply to make sure the whole catalog is available on streaming in all territories.
Several of the CD/Blu-Ray sets (I think all except Fragile and Topographic?) with Wilson's remixes were actually repressed last summer and remain available on Burning Shed last I checked, so it'd probably be counter-intuitive to offer up another physical package until these sell out again. Plus, I think Warner/Rhino's last physical surround release was the Doobie Brothers Quadio way back in September 2020.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if they ask Wilson to revisit some/all of these in Atmos - as he appears to be doing with KC catalog for DGM - and release them via streaming.
 
I’ve come to accept that my “logic” isn’t shared by record companies, and that I also legitimately lack a perspective they have which might actually make sense to me if they explained it.

To me, you milk the heck out of a catalog you own (or just acquired in this case), especially older stuff that has a strong fanbase who are ... uh ... not all blessed with oodles of time left on this planet.

In the area of surround, we’ve now had some level of proof – either through SDE or IAA – that there is a market for 5.1 / Atmos. Maybe people aren’t getting rich off it, but there’s gotta be a profit, or why bother?

You’d think that after buying a catalog you’d look in every direction to recoup your investment... some where the profits should be decent (maybe RSD releases, unissued live shows, and general releases of past studio albums which will likely always be good sellers) and material that has some current buzz like “spacial audio.”

I guess the easiest thing to do is to keep pumping out the same stuff. With the Wilson remixes that would at least give people who originally missed it a chance to get it at a good price. Or maybe their intent is simply to make sure the whole catalog is available on streaming in all territories.

But I’d sure love to hope that “optimum manner to delight fans” means something that those of us who love surround or previously unreleased material can get excited about.
Several of the CD/Blu-Ray sets (I think all except Fragile and Topographic?) with Wilson's remixes were actually repressed last summer and remain available on Burning Shed last I checked, so it'd probably be counter-intuitive to offer up another physical package until these sell out again. Plus, I think Warner/Rhino's last physical surround release was the Doobie Brothers Quadio way back in September 2020.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if they ask Wilson to revisit some/all of these in Atmos - as he appears to be doing with KC catalog for DGM - and release them via streaming.
Everything I've read about the bonanza in music catalog and publishing rights acquisitions over the past few years says that the "investors" anticipate that the vast majority of their revenue from these "assets" will come from streaming and licensing (for films, commercials, etc.). If any physical product comes out of it, I'd expect that to be a happy accident, motivated by something else--a rare industry insider who cares about music and fans and who's in a position to make things happen--rather than profit.
 
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Everything I've read about the bonanza in music catalog and publishing rights acquisitions over the past few years says that the "investors" anticipate that the vast majority of their money from these "assets" will come streaming and licensing (for films, commercials, etc.). If any physical product comes out of it, I'd expect that to be a happy accident, motivated by something else--a rare industry insider who cares about music and fans and who's in a position to make things happen--rather than profit.
That makes sense and I had forgotten about the value of film/commercial licensing. Now I’m dreading a classic Yes song being used in a car commercial. Oh please let that not be the fan delight they speak of.

Several of the CD/Blu-Ray sets (I think all except Fragile and Topographic?) with Wilson's remixes were actually repressed last summer and remain available on Burning Shed last I checked, so it'd probably be counter-intuitive to offer up another physical package until these sell out again.
Totally missed that. Happy that people got a second chance on some of them. One of them (can’t recall which now) was one of my first surround purchases after a friend gifted me his old surround system that he was replacing.
 
That makes sense and I had forgotten about the value of film/commercial licensing. Now I’m dreading a classic Yes song being used in a car commercial. Oh please let that not be the fan delight they speak of.


Totally missed that. Happy that people got a second chance on some of them. One of them (can’t recall which now) was one of my first surround purchases after a friend gifted me his old surround system that he was replacing.
Oh I can just hear Roundabout as an Audi takes one while driving out in the country ... the horror!
 
When I saw this news today had the same thought as sure would be nice if we could see some more of their music released in 5.1 as you have noted.
Going for the One tour was the first time I saw Yes so would love to see this release getting the surround treatment as well as more of their other albums.

The Going for the One multitracks were reported to be MIA (missing in action) back when the remix series was active.
 
That makes sense and I had forgotten about the value of film/commercial licensing. Now I’m dreading a classic Yes song being used in a car commercial. Oh please let that not be the fan delight they speak of.

were you sad when Thick as a Brick was used in car commercial?

I'm sure Ian Anderson wasn't.
 
The Going for the One multitracks were reported to be MIA (missing in action) back when the remix series was active.
were you sad when Thick as a Brick was used in car commercial?

I'm sure Ian Anderson wasn't.
Yeah, I was never expecting them all to be available because, as you mention, some things were, or still are, MIA.

Rumor was that someone was preventing Drama from being a part of the series, either Downes or Horn. Don’t know if that’s accurate, though. But Drama and/or 90125 in surround? Yes please.

Thankfully, I don’t watch a lot of regular TV these days beyond sports (and often on international specialty sports channels), so I missed Thick as a Brick.

I was royally pissed, though, when Jeff Beck’s The Pump was used for a car commercial many years ago. As one of my all-time favorite albums, anything that taints those songs with commercial stink gets my ire.

Oh I can just hear Roundabout as an Audi takes one while driving out in the country ... the horror!
In fairness, if I was a marketing exec and had Roundabout as a musical option, I might at least consider working up a humorous campaign of challenges people have navigating roundabouts.
 
it was kinda charming, really. And it aired ~17 years ago.


That’s not bad. I had assumed some singing, but as just the music, I’ll admit it does work.

And I believe that’s the voice of the actress who played Roz on Frasier, one of the few network shows I watched in the 90s and early 00s.
 
it was kinda charming, really. And it aired ~17 years ago.


But the implication is that Hyundai buyers are . . . thick as bricks? :unsure:

This topic comes up in some of the thinkpieces about rights acquisitions, and sometimes, especially where legacy artists like Dylan and Springsteen are concerned, there's speculation that the contracts were written with provisos that certain commercial uses would be restricted till after the artist's death.

But the consensus seems to be that the old countercultural attitude about the cardinal sin of "selling out" has largely disappeared. Younger listeners, especially, are so used to hearing--or even discovering--music they know and like in commercial settings that it doesn't particularly bother them. And for indie artists, getting a big payout for licensing a TV ad represents a kind of money that they could never hope to earn anywhere else, so even fans who might otherwise demur don't see that sort of thing as a compromise of integrity.
 
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