This doesn't exactly apply to the "mock ups" above but is relevant to some of the other posts.

Many are saying that they wouldn't want to buy releases if the artists aren't getting paid. I just wanted to point out that there are legal releases for which the artists don't get paid, namely public domain releases. You are aware that if you bought a cd of The Twistin' Kings' "Twistin' the World Around" [[as just one example), a public domain release from Hallmark, that no artists were paid?

My preference would have been to buy that from Universal, digitally mastered from the original master tapes, for better quality. I can understand that it probably wouldn't have sold enough to justify a cd release, but perhaps it could have been done as a download.

Harry Weinger once said that one of his group's goals was to digitize the music for archival purposes. [[Once you've made a digital master, it's easy to make many perfect copies and store them in various locations, so that this digital master will be safe from disasters such as fire and won't degrade with time.) If you've spent the money and made the effort to digitize an album, I would expect that it would cost very little to additionally offer it as a download, so why not do it to recoup some of your mastering expenses? My guess is that they still haven't done a digital master of that LP and maybe they never will.

If they were going to release it as a download, it would have made sense to do it before 2012, when the album went into the public domain and others could begin to legally offer public domain vinyl rips on cd as competition - some people might not understand the difference when making their purchase and buy the public-domain cd. If Universal offered it as a download now, I would buy it [[if priced normally) to replace what I have, but some who purchased that cd probably wouldn't - either because they don't know that the sound quality would be much better or they don't care enough to spend money on the same album again. [[I have to admit, I have not listened to that album since right after I bought the Hallmark cd back in 2012.)

Also, as a warning - if you're buying older recordings on cd, say 1950s jazz or vocal, pay attention to the issuing label. Because these recordings are in the public domain in the EU, there are companies offering budget-priced sets which look like great value but are actually needle drops. These compete with the higher-quality releases from the original labels.