scotty wrote: ↑Mon May 03, 2021 6:16 am
The prince of darkness compilation would seem to be a legit release from his MCA years,with a then unreleased live billion dollar babies.
It's legit in as much as it's not a bootleg, but I *think* what rgallie is looking for is albums that would have been included as part of a record deal, not compilations legally released later on.
[I'm sure you know this but this is as I understand it]
Bands used to be signed to record companies for multi-album deals, and those deals would often include a certain number of live/compilation albums as part of the total number of albums "owed" to the label. It's why you would often get a live or compilation album before a change of label. It was an easy way to finish out the contract without giving the label any new songs. You want to save those for your sparkly new label, who you hope will push them more then a label you have effectively already left and don't really care about you anymore.
Of course after a contact is completed and the artist has moved on, the original label often still owns the rights to the material recorded under the contract, and so can release more compilations which is what MCA and especially Epic have done with all those compilations, either themselves or licensing the tracks to anyone who will pay.
After Epic I think AC specifically works a little differently with single album deals, and if the company does good then you would give the next album too them (ie Spitfire) - if you're not happy with what they did for you, you try someone else the next time.
After Spitfire *I think* things changed (as the whole industry model was changing), and AC/Shep recorded the albums before getting a deal to release them, which allowed them to keep the rights to that material themselves.
Since W2MN it's a little different again, as everything comes under Bob Ezrin's company (forget the name) I think, and is effectively licensed to Earmusic. This means AC and co effective own the material themselves, unlike say the Epic albums where Epic still own all the recordings, not Alice, and they can do what they want with it - hence al the endless Epic based compilations.
Anyone with more knowledge of the ins and outs is welcome to correct any of the above. I'm not a expert and I'm sure someone knows more, but I thnk that's all basically correct.