The ShadowMusic Web Community

Hi - does anyone know why the Shads Polydor albums are missing from the digital platforms when Hank’s solo albums are all there ?

yes, I've always thought that strange..
I don't think Guitar Player is up there, though - and Guitar Syndicate is, I think, only a recent addition.
I think Steppin' to the Shadows was on there at one point but it's gone now

For those of us who don’t know what a digital platform is, please would you explain?

Thanks!

Iain

I think the guys are talking about Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora etc.

Andrew

Yes that's it - the digital streaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify.

They do have the compilation Themes and Dreams on there - a sort of best of the Polydor years. Perhaps they wanted people to listen to the 60s and 70s stuff in preference to the 80s albums. But a lot of people do like the 80s albums and it would be nice to see all of them there.

I've not even found the Cliff and the Shadows Reunited album on there - which is a shame. I think their company was called Rollover Records so there must be an issue there.

Interestingly most of Hank's albums are there to stream.

I’m learning here. Is it in a performer’s financial interest to be on Spotify etc, or the opposite?

That's a very good question.

They get royalties from streaming - so whether people have the album on CD/vinyl/cassette or not the artists get a small royalty from every stream. In reality you need millions of streams to make a decent amount out of it. Most artists put all their stuff available to stream, including Cliff.

On the other hand if you just make it available on CD you get all the money up front - perhaps £15 from each customer regardless of whether they play it once or a thousand times.

One advantage of streaming is people can dip into your work without having to buy it. Which means you reach more people. For example I wouldn't buy ALL the Shads albums but I would listen to the ones I haven't got on Apple Music to see what I think.

I think the digital music platforms make the most money out of this, which is very unfair I think. The only thing they do is making the music available. They don't have any other creative input, so the money is very easily earned.