Quote:
Originally Posted by sorcerer999
Yes, but this happened about 2 or 3 years BEFORE her label auctioned off her storage vault.
I think it's due to this man's GREED that got us all these Master Reels. (And THANK GOD for his greed, right? Otherwise we wouldn't have these at all -Hahaha) It doesn't take much money to rent time in a simple studio (you can rent studio time for $20 an hour) and most Engineer's fees are about $35 an hour. It also doesn't take much time to have one reel transferred to a CD (one could transfer one complete reel in an hour's time). He was selling individual reels (example "Julia" Master Reel with only Take 8 and 9 on the disc) for nearly $200.00 (compared to maybe $60 it took to have a reel transferred) ~ he knew that the hardcore Stevie fan would pay for it. Some of us never had a chance in owning any of these for several years after until the GENEROSITY of several folks who spent all that money for those reels, yet let us trade and download for FREE.
Simply my opinion, though.  |
Well, in all honestly - we don't know the whole story, but I'll share with you what I was told by the person who sold me the reels on CD. I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes here.
First, the storage vault was not auctioned by Modern or any other label Stevie was on. It was in a building formerly owned or leased by Modern that they moved out of. The reels were in a closet, and were located by the new building tenants. Stevie's camp was contacted, and they weren't interested. The reels started appearing on eBay, being sold by someone named Chris. A few were sold individually, before Gary bought the rest of them.
Gary contacted the seller, and made arrangements to purchase the entire remaining cache of reels. A deal was made for $30K. Gary borrowed the money from a family member, and made the purchase. Gary was a huge fan of Stevie, and wanted these to be shared with everyone - he knew from prior experience that if they all went individually to differnet buyers, it was possible than many would never be heard - just like the RAL work tapes that surfaced in 2011. He started making the arrangements to rent studio time, and to hire a sound engineer to begin the transfer of each reel to CD. Each reel was to be copied individually to a CD, as-is, with the most sound quality improvements possible. A straight transfer of reel to CD doesn't actually sound that great, which is why many were re-copied.
Anyway, I don't know the circumstances, but Gary died. He died before his reel-to-reel project could be completed. His best friend, who I shall refer to as BT, took over the project. BT completed the transfer of reels to CD, which actually took a couple of years - I was buying them as he was transferring them - and every few months there would be a couple dozen more available. BT was selling them, and I don't know what other folks paid but I got them for $10-$15 per title. I often pitched in with other fans, some are still members of this board, and we would share all of the reels amongst each other. BT was ok with this - but he wasn't ok with the reels just being feeely provided all over the internet. This is because in addition to receiving the reels when Gary died, BT also received the burden of paying back the uncle that Gary had borrowed money from. Not to mention the studio time. And proper storage for the reels - magnetic tape doesn't just last forver. It has to be stored in a climate controlled facility, and that's not free. BT has never listed reels on eBay.
BT was only trying to fulfill Gary's wishes that these reels be shared, and he did it the way he thought best. This is what BT told me, via e-mail, when I was buying reels from him. He was generous and open about it, and I hope I have not offended him by sharing it here, should he come across this thread. I have no idea if BT is a Ledgie.
The last time I had any contact with BT was April 2010. I still have the list of reels he sent me at that time, numbering 213. I don't know if there are more. Pretty much all of them are Bella Donna era, with about a dozen exceptions that are OSOTM or Street Angel.
There are other reels, that are not from BT. They were among the first to circulate, and include the Julia title you mentioned. I don't know anything about these inital masters, or where they came from. They might have come from the eBay seller that Gary bought from - I don't know.