Been REALLY quiet on the FTG set. Anybody know what might be coming if anything?

They have been quiet for well over a year now. Not sure what happened. I don't think they even have an office in New York anymore. They are back in the U.K. They ended up with a lot of titles that were sent back to them from various sources that they didn't sell. Because CD sales have plummeted and R&B reissues have always had very low sales, I think the cost of maunufacturing and remastering the CDs just wasn't worth it anymore. After having to share any profits with the labels who own the masters, I'm sure FTG ended up in the hole with a lot of those titles. It was nice while it lasted though. Even BBR and soulmusic.com have resorted to releasing mostly compilations now because it's cheaper and people are more likely to buy those instead of original albums.

I just wish they would have been able to release the rest of those Dionne Warwick Arista titles before they stopped the reissues. They claimed there was going to be unreleased vault material on the "Hearbreaker" reissue but it never came to pass.

one album I really wanted them to reissue: the 1987 debut album by Madame X (produced by Bernadette Cooper).I even sent them an email a long time ago,requesting it.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

They are remasting the wrong albums. I mean multiple La Toya Jackson albums and not Jermaine Motown catalogue?

Motown falls under Universal. They were having a very difficult time getting Universal to cooperate with reissues. I had a discussion about that with them when I was asking for some Motown and MCA reissues. If you notice, both FTG and BBR had very limited amounts of MCA and Motown reissues. And when Universal bought the right to RCA recordings, those reissues stopped, too.

And there were only two La Toya reissues.

kitbradley said:

I was REALLY looking forward to the SWV It's About Time (RCA) reissue, but it kept getting pushed back then removed from the website.

The Toni Braxton debut reissue is beyond excellent.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

kitbradley said:

Motown falls under Universal. They were having a very difficult time getting Universal to cooperate with reissues. I had a discussion about that with them when I was asking for some Motown and MCA reissues. If you notice, both FTG and BBR had very limited amounts of MCA and Motown reissues. And when Universal bought the right to RCA recordings, those reissues stopped, too.

And there were only two La Toya reissues.

I was just using that as an example. I'm nkt sure if Funky town grooves ever did anything Motown. But I'm pretty sure it's more albums to releass besides LaToya Jackson and I'm a Jackson fan! And it was 3 La Toya albums lol.

Well, let's place the blame where it belongs. FTG reissued "Heart Don't Lie" (which was very highly sought after. The Japan pressing was selling at ridiculous prices on ebay) and "Imagination". Cherry Red reissued "You're Gonna Get Rocked" as a double CD and another label reissued her debut album.

I've said it before, I have never understood why Universal has decided not to reissue most of Jermaine's catalog. They've had plenty of opportunity to bypass reissue labels and reissue them as part of the many Japan import series' they have done over the years. But besides "Let's Get Serious" and another earlier title, they continue to pass on reissuing Jermaine's catalog. They would just rather stick to reissuing the same titles every few years.

And I would like the make a correction to my earlier post where I stated Universal owns the rights to RCA recordings. I meant to say Capitol Records recordings.

SoulAlive said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

They are remasting the wrong albums. I mean multiple La Toya Jackson albums and not Jermaine Motown catalogue?

I agree,some of their choices are absurd.Who the hell wants a LaToya Jackson reissue?

The way it worked is they (FTG, BBR, etc.) would put in requests for many titles but the labels who owned the recordings would only grant permission for certain ones. Believe me, I was hounding them about a lot of titles, especially FTG since they were the only ones able to get vault material. They told me they could only reissue what the labels agreed to.

Toni Braxton didn't have vault material but had SO MANY different mixes of the songs. SWV's would have been perfect to reissue for that reason.

kitbradley said:

They have been quiet for well over a year now. Not sure what happened. I don't think they even have an office in New York anymore. They are back in the U.K. They ended up with a lot of titles that were sent back to them from various sources that they didn't sell. Because CD sales have plummeted and R&B reissues have always had very low sales, I think the cost of maunufacturing and remastering the CDs just wasn't worth it anymore. After having to share any profits with the labels who own the masters, I'm sure FTG ended up in the hole with a lot of those titles. It was nice while it lasted though. Even BBR and soulmusic.com have resorted to releasing mostly compilations now because it's cheaper and people are more likely to buy those instead of original albums.

I just wish they would have been able to release the rest of those Dionne Warwick Arista titles before they stopped the reissues. They claimed there was going to be unreleased vault material on the "Hearbreaker" reissue but it never came to pass.

I think you're RIGHT, Kit! SO SAD! It WAS AMAZING while it lasted and we got AWESOME obscure titles in the process like Smoke City's "I Really Want You" and Rose Royce's "Stronger Than Ever." Definitely a licensing issue. I would have 2 agree with u on that. Dionne's stuff seemed so promising too! I was hoping for Thelma Houston's "Qualifying Heat" from 1984 with those 4 Flyte Tyme tracks on it. Seems that the anthologies are the way 2 go, unfortunately, but even those can be iffy sometimes. There is a wonderful singer named Donna Washington on Capitol from 1980-1982. I introduced her music to David Nathan at Soulmusic Records and he remastered her 2nd album (first time EVER on CD), "Going For The Glow," and it sold really poorly. Her remaining two are in vinyl format to this day 38 and 36 yrs. later. SO depressing. Even Linda Clifford's catalog would have been amazing, but alas, no. Happy Easter with luv, my friend! <3

SoulAlive said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

They are remasting the wrong albums. I mean multiple La Toya Jackson albums and not Jermaine Motown catalogue?

I agree,some of their choices are absurd.Who the hell wants a LaToya Jackson reissue?

La Toya Jackson! BLOOOOOOOOORK! (Puking sound!) Yeah...some of their choices WERE on the bizarre side of the fence. It's probably the only stuff they were granted licensing for, so they just took what they could get, Soul.

whitechocolatebrotha said:

SoulAlive said:

LittleBLUECorvette said: I agree,some of their choices are absurd.Who the hell wants a LaToya Jackson reissue?

La Toya Jackson! BLOOOOOOOOORK! (Puking sound!) Yeah...some of their choices WERE on the bizarre side of the fence. It's probably the only stuff they were granted licensing for, so they just took what they could get, Soul.

yeah,that's probably what happened

Don't hate on TOY! Teehee

I noticed lazy Universal is reissuing a lot of titles (with bonus tracks) as Japan imports over the next several weeks. Many of the titles were already issued via FTG. I mean, really???

kitbradley said:

I noticed lazy Universal is reissuing a lot of titles (with bonus tracks) as Japan imports over the next several weeks. Many of the titles were already issued via FTG. I mean, really???

FTG puts in way more research and adds liner notes. I would always prefer their release.