Midtown Members Kind of Confused About Vinyl Pressing
 

After making a snarky comment (is there anything else from me?) on my instagram account to Rob Hitt (Midtown) about buying the vinyl that were announced yesterday, Rob responded that neither the band nor Drive-Thru know exactly how this is happening and that they're looking into this pressing. We'll keep you updated when we hear more.

Good to see SRC working closely with the bands they put out releases for.

Travis...

Translation: Do Not Buy This

obviously this is gunna be a TOYPAJ situation:

still waiting...

How do you even get the masters without contacting the label and/or band?! Sounds fairly dodgey

"vinyls" <cringe!>

Also, the original post mentions Hot Topic, not SRC... I guess reading is hard. And, it's probably a case of the major label that inevitably owns the rights signing off on it. If that's not something bands want to have happen, don't sign with majors or their subsidiaries.

Welp.

HotTopic.
if it was SRC i would believe it. but I trust travis knows what he's doing.

So it's not the usual SRC/HT joint release?

SRC and HT usually work together? I've only been collecting since April, but since I can remember, it's usually HT exclusives.

Yikes. Hot Topic seems more reputable than SRC for sure. I guess we should just wait and see where it goes?

No I would guess Universal licensed these out. Most hot topic exclusives are universal.

Travis has brought us tons of pressings that would never see the light of day, If bands know about it or not. So I trust him.

And before someone says it's stealing from the artist. A it's midtown so lol and B it cost so much to press there's very little profit to be made for the band.

Link to costs?

First of all: you seem pretty stupid.

Second of all: It was confirmed by your Username.

It doesn't matter how "little" profit he is making (which is probably a hell of a lot more than you think) he is still profiting off the work of others without their knowledge, consent, or cutting them a slice of that profit. It doesn't matter if it would have never seen the light of day, it's still morally and legally wrong to press someone else's music without the consent of the copyright holder.

whoopsies

The copyright holder is the label. It sucks but its life

Look at what he posted, the label had nothing to do with this either.

Drive-thru maybe but Universal I am guessing did.

I doubt what happened is illegal, but it still sucks for a band to find out about something like this through random channels, as well as have no input on the product.

Agree, but that is the music industry these days.

Both of the records being pressed were released on Drive Thru Records, Columbia put out Forget what you know, so I'm not really sure were Universal comes in to this at all.

Living well came out on drive-thru MCA. Remember the horrible deal we all heard about with drive-thru and MCA

I'm extremely exhausted and tired. In this tiredness, I somehow read this post as being a legitimate
rumor of a Midtown reunion.

Depends on individual artists contract, they don't really own the copyright to the music, the Label does so it kinda depends on that. And seeing how much drive thru loves midtown and they are best friends... I doubt they would see much at all.

Copyright holder Meaning either drive thru or universal, not midtown.

Drive-thru had nothing to do with this/had no idea about this...

If they would ever get back together I'd buy this directly from them at a show.... But.... I'm torn. I listened to Daryl about not buying worship&tribute (wish I would have) but this is difficult.

Bring the hate. Living Well will be worth it.

This kinda sucks. Interested to see how it plays out.

I can't recall a SRC/HT joint release.

My assumption is that Universal Music Group owns the rights to these records.

Or at least they think they do. This is not hot topic's fault it is Universal's. It's their job to tell the band. Hot topic just asks if its possible. They do not press records Universal does.

Thats never happened

Really hope this happens and that everyone including the band is happy.

This happened last time STWLTG was going to get pressed.

Haha this is so dumb. I obviously don't know exactly what's going behind the scenes with this but I do know:

1) SRC is not releasing this. Cripes, do your research.
2) DTR has been hinting at a gaggle of vinyl releases coming up this year and these releases fit right in with that. I have no idea why DTR supposedly has no idea about this.
3) Robb should chill. I doubt he was making much money when Midtown was active- how much is he going to make from a small vinyl pressing? Maintaining control over when these records are pressed cannot be a lucrative undertaking. Plus, just let it happen for the fans.

At least we can all agree Gabe is a douche bag :)

If it wasnt for hot topic getting the rights to this is probally wouldnt happend ever. Dude needs to dry those tears.

not getting involved in the argument; however if there was a vinyl release I would buy it.

i fucking love Midtown.

- Gunz

If it's being done through Hot Topic, then it's probably being done through legitimate channels. Just some food for thought.

I would guess, like everyone is saying, that the decision was made by Universal (formally MCA). I know for sure that they were partnered with Drive-Thru when 'Living Well Is The Best Revenge' came out but I'm not sure about 'Save The World, Lose The Girl'. So in the end if Universal decides they are going to go forward with pressing the record then there's really nothing that can be done. That being said, it would be interesting to see how the rest of the band feels about this. They may not be against it.

Qustion: If Universal owns the masters or the license or whatever does that mean that no one else but them can press this record?

Zummy, pretty much I think, if they own it they are the only ones that can press/grant permission to press...even the band itself would need their permission to press it...That's why HT has to get the license to press it from the record label before they can actually press it

Yeah, that's what I thought. Because otherwise I don't see why Midtown or at least Rob Hitt (via I,Surender) wouldn't release it himself. I really want the vinyls but I don't want the band being angry about it.

For better or worse, this happens all of the time. In recent memory: RXB's "Progress" and This Charming Man's "Every Little Secret". In each case, members of the band didn't know it was going to happen. For "Progress", it was Drive-Thru that sold the rights for pressing, which some form of that is likely what is going on here.

Lol this is dumb just because they don't necessarily know doesn't mean it didn't get properly licensed for the release.