Beatles Master Tapes in the Wild
First of all, how could there possibly be Master tapes of the Beatles and other top groups in circulation outside of the recording studio and record production professional circles? For as long as tape has been a viable medium, (mid 1950s) record labels have provided their affiliates with copies of Master tapes for local production of records (often called Production Masters). By the mid seventies, cassette tapes and then 8-tracks had eclipsed LPs before giving away to digital recordings, CDs. It was the movement to digital that has provided the impetus that has made these master tapes available; once a ‘record’ company moved to digital (compact discs) the thinking was that there was no need to keep the space-consuming analog tapes, along with their stringent temperature and humidity controlled requirements. Heave-ho, out to the dumpster they go!
EMI Abbey Road provided Beatles Master Tapes directly to their subsidiaries.
Its well documented that EMI-Abbey Road provided hundreds of first generation copies of the Beatle Master tapes to affiliates worldwide for local production of records.
In 1982, Mobile Fidelity Sound Laboratory released a box set of Beatles albums cut directly from the EMI master tapes at half the normal speed for better reproduction. These are on Ebay and typically fetch around $1000 for a nice box set.
For our research here, the importance of the MFSL set is that each album cover in the box set featured photographs of the master tape, and its metal storage box showing the inside lid of the Master Tape Reel used to make the MFSL LPs. The sheet glued to the inner lid contained information on the master tape (mastering dates, tape type and speed, track list, personnel involved…) and in the later albums, a list of occasions when a copy of the master tape was made including the date, for what purpose. or for which country, and the initials of the person making the copy. For example here is the sheet for side A of Abbey Road showing the copies made through 1982 for affiliates worldwide: the tape itself was "tinned" in May of 1971. So this is a new master made from the original eight track final recording in 1971, and was not the source for all the copies made for licensees in late 1969. We can see that Australia and New Zealand got copies in 1972, Holland in 1973, Belgium in 1976, a 30 inches per second copy for Japan in 1978, along with India and a second copy for Holland, Egypt in 1980, Capitol US in 1981 and Ireland in 1982.
It bears repeating, EMI Abbey Road provided hundreds of first generation copies (Production Masters) of the Beatle Master tapes to affiliates worldwide for local production of records. The MFSL Beatles boxset provides a partial list of tapes that were provided directly from EMI Abbey Road to EMI-affiliates worldwide.
Its important to note that, while providing some utility, the MFSL listing of master tapes supplied to EMI subsidiares is not complete. In some cases the photo on the MFSL album cover is of a submaster. This copy of the Abbey Road side A master tape is labelled "Remix" - not THE original master, but likely the same generation - a remix of the Master original 8 track tape. From the Discogs site we also know that Abbey Road was released in over 30 countries in late 1969.
https://www.discogs.com/The-Beatles-Abbey-Road/master/24047
The Abbey Road master in the MFSL photo above does not show any of these 30+ Master Tapes that would have been sent out just after Abbey Road was being released in the UK on September 29, 1969. The tape in the photo was created 19 months later on May 4, 1971, a copy of the original eight track Master. It was first used to make a copy for Australia in 1972, so the MFSL pictures obviously don't cover all of the copies of the master tape that EMI made and distributed. Conversely, As an example, we know from discogs that Holland was one of over thirty countries that released Abbey Road in 1969, the same year as the UK and US release. The Abbey Road MFSL photo shows that copies of Abbey Road were made for Holland twice more, once in 1973 and again in 1980, even though they already had one from 1969! A large number of EMI affiliates were supplied Master Tapes piece meal, perhaps mainly through affiliates in the sixties, but then got new masters directly from EMI Abbey Road through at least 1983.
We know that many countries released Beatles material for the first time in the 70s and 80s; the releases and dates are documented. For instance at
https://www.discogs.com/The-Beatles-Beatles-For-Sale/master/45799
we learn that Jugoton (Yugoslavia) first released With The Beatles in 1976. That matches up with the MFSL photo of the tape lid (below) showing that EMI Abbey Road made a copy of With the Beatles for Yugoslavia on June 14, 1976 (blue ellipse). The copy shown in the MFSL set was a remix of the original twin track of With The Beatles and was edited and banded in November 1964, a year after the album had been released. It wasn't used for copies until 1973, so any copies made before that date would not be listed here. This copy would still be consider a Master Tape because it was recorded directly from the original Twin track and was made by Norm Smith on EMITAPE type 77 (24N means 2400 feet tape length) at 15 inches per second.
EMI Abbey Road provided Beatles Master Tapes directly to their subsidiaries.
Its well documented that EMI-Abbey Road provided hundreds of first generation copies of the Beatle Master tapes to affiliates worldwide for local production of records.
In 1982, Mobile Fidelity Sound Laboratory released a box set of Beatles albums cut directly from the EMI master tapes at half the normal speed for better reproduction. These are on Ebay and typically fetch around $1000 for a nice box set.
For our research here, the importance of the MFSL set is that each album cover in the box set featured photographs of the master tape, and its metal storage box showing the inside lid of the Master Tape Reel used to make the MFSL LPs. The sheet glued to the inner lid contained information on the master tape (mastering dates, tape type and speed, track list, personnel involved…) and in the later albums, a list of occasions when a copy of the master tape was made including the date, for what purpose. or for which country, and the initials of the person making the copy. For example here is the sheet for side A of Abbey Road showing the copies made through 1982 for affiliates worldwide: the tape itself was "tinned" in May of 1971. So this is a new master made from the original eight track final recording in 1971, and was not the source for all the copies made for licensees in late 1969. We can see that Australia and New Zealand got copies in 1972, Holland in 1973, Belgium in 1976, a 30 inches per second copy for Japan in 1978, along with India and a second copy for Holland, Egypt in 1980, Capitol US in 1981 and Ireland in 1982.
It bears repeating, EMI Abbey Road provided hundreds of first generation copies (Production Masters) of the Beatle Master tapes to affiliates worldwide for local production of records. The MFSL Beatles boxset provides a partial list of tapes that were provided directly from EMI Abbey Road to EMI-affiliates worldwide.
Its important to note that, while providing some utility, the MFSL listing of master tapes supplied to EMI subsidiares is not complete. In some cases the photo on the MFSL album cover is of a submaster. This copy of the Abbey Road side A master tape is labelled "Remix" - not THE original master, but likely the same generation - a remix of the Master original 8 track tape. From the Discogs site we also know that Abbey Road was released in over 30 countries in late 1969.
https://www.discogs.com/The-Beatles-Abbey-Road/master/24047
The Abbey Road master in the MFSL photo above does not show any of these 30+ Master Tapes that would have been sent out just after Abbey Road was being released in the UK on September 29, 1969. The tape in the photo was created 19 months later on May 4, 1971, a copy of the original eight track Master. It was first used to make a copy for Australia in 1972, so the MFSL pictures obviously don't cover all of the copies of the master tape that EMI made and distributed. Conversely, As an example, we know from discogs that Holland was one of over thirty countries that released Abbey Road in 1969, the same year as the UK and US release. The Abbey Road MFSL photo shows that copies of Abbey Road were made for Holland twice more, once in 1973 and again in 1980, even though they already had one from 1969! A large number of EMI affiliates were supplied Master Tapes piece meal, perhaps mainly through affiliates in the sixties, but then got new masters directly from EMI Abbey Road through at least 1983.
We know that many countries released Beatles material for the first time in the 70s and 80s; the releases and dates are documented. For instance at
https://www.discogs.com/The-Beatles-Beatles-For-Sale/master/45799
we learn that Jugoton (Yugoslavia) first released With The Beatles in 1976. That matches up with the MFSL photo of the tape lid (below) showing that EMI Abbey Road made a copy of With the Beatles for Yugoslavia on June 14, 1976 (blue ellipse). The copy shown in the MFSL set was a remix of the original twin track of With The Beatles and was edited and banded in November 1964, a year after the album had been released. It wasn't used for copies until 1973, so any copies made before that date would not be listed here. This copy would still be consider a Master Tape because it was recorded directly from the original Twin track and was made by Norm Smith on EMITAPE type 77 (24N means 2400 feet tape length) at 15 inches per second.
