June 22, 2006

Diana Ross's new jazz album isn't exactly new -- she recorded it about 35 years ago.

But there's something decidedly contemporary about the CD, which goes on sale June 20 (it's already available at Starbucks). It's part of a new wave of old music, as a sales-starved industry scours its libraries for old or unreleased material it can spin into easy profits.

In 1972, Ms. Ross was riding high on the release of her Billie Holiday biopic "Lady Sings the Blues," for which she later received an Oscar nomination. In conjunction with a movie soundtrack composed of pop-influenced renditions of Billie Holiday tracks, Ms. Ross also separately recorded purer jazz versions of the same material, along with some standards. But according to Universal Music Group, which now owns Motown, the jazzier versions, arranged by Gil Askey, were rejected because the label wanted her to work on more commercial releases.

Now the economics are different. It usually costs less to hire a "vault asset specialist" to find previously recorded tracks from an existing performer than it does to record new songs or market a new artist -- especially when established musicians can be paid royalties on old music at the lower rate they typically would have been paid when it was recorded. (Universal declined to comment on Ms. Ross's royalties, but her business manager says her deals have been renegotiated several times since 1972.)

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