GirlsWon'tLeaveMeAlone wrote:
Sorry for being so ignorant, BUT could one of you explain to a rookie what you are talking about?? Please in lay-mans terms. Not links to other threads, I never understand them. Doh.
Each year since 2012, thanks to a new EU law/directive, record labels have to release material that are 50 years old if they want to retain the copyright for those tracks for another 70 years (if not they become public domain and consequently free). For instance, in 2012, you could find many 1962 outtakes from Freewheelin' and some live shows like the Gaslight, Finjan Club, etc. In 2013, it was the Times They Are A Changin', Carnegie Hall and Town Hall, and so on.
For Sony the goal was to retain the rights on those tracks for a future bootleg series or just to advert a grey are release (you know, those cheap records you can find on amazon of early rock'n'roll, live shows of the Beatles, etc.).
That is why they released a compilation each year (first on CD, then vinyl for 1963-1964, followed by the gigantic Bootleg Series Volume 12 with all the outtakes of 1965-1966 and the live download of 1965 shows in 2015, and finally the complete 1966 live recordings box set for 2016). We also think the Basement Tapes were released entirely in 2014 to beat the copyright for 1967 (Blood On The Tracks sessions were expected but those laws change the order).
So you might think it was logical to release the John Wesley Harding sessions for 2017 to keep the rights of 1967 songs? Unfortunately, Sony said they won't release them because no collector has them as we know of (that means no risk of grey area release). But those releases were always low-key. There were less than a thousand copies in all of Europe, and only in record stores, until Bootleg Series Volume 12 came with the outrageously priced collector edition (more than 500€ without shipment and import). So it was possible Sony just taunted us so the release won't make the news (remember, the goal for Sony is not to publish those records, just keep the rights, so less people know the better).
We are now January 1st and nothing happened, so Sony said the truth for once
