News

Yesterday, Analogplanet sent around to vinyl producers worldwide our annual pressing plant totals request.

LOS ANGELES, May 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Music and the Estate of Michael Jackson today announced that it will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the biggest selling album of all time, with the November 18 release of Michael Jackson Thriller 40, a double CD set comprised of Michael’s original masterpiece Thriller and an exciting second disc full of surprises for fans including never-released tracks which were worked on by Michael for the Thriller album. To date, the album has amassed in excess of 100 million in sales worldwide.

The Beatles Abbey Road gets the expected 50th anniversary treatment on September 27th UMe announced today, which coincidentally is the 50th anniversary of the famous walk across the street photo shoot that became the iconic album cover.

The misaligned stars leading to yesterday's Dolby screening room software malfunction (you know the story), aligned today. I was on 58th and 3rd at Innovative Audio to spin vinyl and Guy Hayden was just finishing up today's three Abbey Road 50th Anniversary Edition demos (which went off without a glitch).

Hayden emailed asking if there was a chance I could return to the screening room on 58th and 6th Avenue for a proper stereo mix listen. He didn't know I was right down the block! Unfortunately time was too tight for me to get up there, listen and return to Innovative for the 5:30PM event start time so Hayden generously offered to bring the set to Innovative so I could listen on a proper hi-fi system, which seemed like the ideal way to listen to any version of Abbey Road.

dCS (Data Conversion Systems, Ltd.) announced earlier this month an expansion of its "Legends" program that acknowledges recording, mixing and mastering greats who have brought all of us so much listening pleasure through great recorded sound. The initial recipient, Bob Ludwig (third from the left after engineering greats Elliot Scheiner and Chuck Ainlay) was the first recipient at an awards ceremony in New York last October.

Verve will release on October 2nd, 2020 a never before issued Ella Fitzgerald concert performance recorded in stereo at Berlin's Sportpalast March 25th 1962. Ella recorded in Berlin 1960, one of her best known, most popular, double Grammy Award winning albums Mack The Knife: Ella in Berlin in which she bobbled the words. She remembers them here, but forgets where she is—understandable when you're in the middle of a long European tour. That one was recorded only in monophonic.