Sony Music have issued a limited edition boxset of rare Bob Dylan recordings in Europe, but the super-scarce collection isn’t just to appease Dylan fanatics, as the set was issued to prevent the early recordings from falling out of copyright.
As The New York Times reports, Sony Music distributed roughly 100 copies of The 50th Anniversary Collection to a handful of European music outlets in Germany, France, Sweden, and Britain just after Christmas. Rushing the four-disc boxset of 86 Dylan rarities – including previously unreleased outtake and live recordings from 1962-63 – has an express purpose, as noted by the blunt subtitle of The Copyright Extension Collection, Vol. 1.
The new compilation came in response to new provisions in European copyright law, scheduled to take effect in 2014, which contain a ‘use it or lose it’ provision.
As a Sony spokesperson told Rolling Stone:
This isn’t a scheme to make money. The copyright law in Europe was recently extended from 50 to 70 years for everything recorded in 1963 and beyond. With everything before that, there’s a new ‘use it or lose it’ provision. It basically said, ‘If you haven’t used the recordings in the first 50 years, you aren’t going to get any more.
The recordings contained on The 50th Anniversary Collection were about to fall into that legal pothole, as unlike American copyright laws, which deems recordings made since 1978 will remain under protection until 70 years after the death of the author, European recordings can by copyrighted for just 50 years.
Meaning, that Bob Dylan’s eponymous 1962 debut LP became part of the European public domain on January 1st, allowing anyone in Europe to release the music from that record without paying Dylan a single cent. Sony wisened up and released the new super-rare boxset to ensure their property over recordings from the same era don’t fall out of their proteciton.“This isn’t a scheme to make money…The whole point of copyrighting this stuff is that we intend to do something with it at some point in the future.”
Love The Beatles?
Get the latest The Beatles news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
“The whole point of copyrighting this stuff is that we intend to do something with it at some point in the future,” a Sony source says. “But it wasn’t the right time to do it right after he released Tempest,” referring to Dylan’s 35th studio album released late last year, a record our Tone Deaf reviewer deemed “will surely sit in the middle realms of [Dylan’s] work.”
While the contents of The 50th Anniversary Collection: The Copyright Extension Collection, Vol. 1 will likely get a wider, worldwide release eventually, its scarcity has made it an instant collectors item. Copies that have turned up on online auction sites are already selling for as much as $US 1,500.
Fans looking for a cheaper, digital version of the rarities collection are also out of luck, though the collection is available for download through BobDylan.com, it’s only to members who log on through France of Germany.
The issue of the European copyright over Dylan’s music represents an interesting new parameter to the continued discussion of music ownership, artistic royalties, and the access, value, and distribution of music.
A debate that’s sure to continue, as The New York Times points out, as recordings from more iconic artists of the 50s and 60s – such as Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, and Chuck Berry – have become part of the European public domain in recent years. While lawmakers are facing pressure to revise copyright provisions as the the new changes threaten to place late 60s legends like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and more into the free domain.
The Dylan boxset sets an example that other record companies are likely to follow if they want to keep their treasured copyright protection, so expect to see a whole lot more Beatles and Stones reissues than usual in the near future.
View the bootleg-alike artwork and tracklisting for The 50th Anniversary Collection: The Copyright Extension Collection, Vol. 1 below and the tracklisting details here (via Discogs.com)
