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Why did RCA, Victor & EMI Odeon destroy their archives?
The recording industry changed forever with the Rock & Roll revolution. Marketing strategies rather than artistic value became the factor. And the industry discovered that the younger people were THE market. In 1962, RCA Victor designed colombian Ricardo Mejías as their artistic manager in Argentina. He was responsable of creating a successful TV show, "El club del clan". In this program a group of artist of this company (most of them forgotten today) performed silly songs that became extremely popular thanks to heavy advertising and merchandising rather because to artistic value. Meanwhile, Mr. Mejías realized that the company's archive was filled with what he thought were outdated and unusable recordings adopting a policy that "old is bad". And with the success of "El club del clan", Mr. Mejías proceeded to destroy the preserved masters or reuse the historical disks in order to produce new ones. Collectors remember vividly these events. And when RCA Victor wanted to put in the market something of historical value they had to humillate themselves by "borrowing" the materials from collectors. EMI Odeon and Columbia also followed this policy. Columbia is the worse run company since they almost never reprinted anything. Today the industry continues to be run by people who does not care for what they originally produced. Where are the jazz recordings of Eleuterio Iribarren for Max Glücksmann (EMI Odeon)? Where are the recordings of Carlos Vicente Geroni Flores for Victor? Where are the recordings of Minotto Di Cicco for Columbia?... I also believe that in the United States destroyed their holdings too. Saludos desde
Peludópolis
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