An analysis of the role of the catalogue and special projects department within the music industry.
This paper examines how the cost of releasing new commercial records is high and how once the public profile of an album in its primary release dies away, it often becomes uneconomical for the record label to maintain support for that release. It covers the main strategies used by record labels to generate income from back-catalogues and looks at topics such as compilation albums, re-issues and retail mechanisms.
“The release of a “Greatest Hits” is not necessarily a gravestone marking the end of an artist’s career and it is now likely that a greatest hits compilation may be superseded by a new album. There may even be multiple greatest hits released for one act; Madonna’s “Immaculate Collection” topped the British album chart in December of 1990 but still managed to re-enter the chart in January of 2001, peaking at number 21. In November of the same year Madonna released her second greatest hits album “GHV2: Greatest Hits Volume 2 ” “The Best Songs of a Decade” which reached number 2.”