Reissues were, until now, mentioned in the same breath as crossovers
when record company executives speak of the life blood of the business.
Reissued old recordings serve the label's interest since they were recorded
when costs and royalty rates were low and have long since been amortized.

I would think that Sony would recognize the value of their archives!  The
Masterworks Heritage collection set a standard with beautifully packaged
presentations of historical recordings.  New collectors gravitate toward
these classic accounts because of the aura of reverence that surrounds them
and partly because they are relatively cheap.  When Sony discontinues its
Masterworks series, EMI is at the same time reviving its Great Recordings
of the Century collection.  You scratch your head and wonder why.  But
maybe that is the point -- perhaps there are just a few "new" collectors
now.  The market has changed.  Even with the rock-n-roll set, there does
not seem to be any band loyalty anymore.  When you had one Led Zepplin
album, you had all of them.

I hate to see artistic decisions left entirely up to the market, though.
One trend that is encouraging is that orchestras have started to mine their
own radio achives to produce and market sets of their own.  I hope that
will continue.

Mark