On-demand reissue of out-of-print CDs

In My Humble Opinion
1

OK, so there’s this CD that I’ve wanted to buy for a long time (Holst: The Planets/Ligeti: Lux AEterna). Every time I checked Amazon, there were only a couple of offers for the original CD on Marketplace. Since it was a bit pricey for a single disc, I constantly postponed buying it.

I checked the availability again yesterday and all the offers that I had seen were gone. I had it coming, really. I should have bought it years ago.

Anyway, besides the second-hand offers that I’m not interested in, I noticed a couple with this mention:

IMPORTANT: PLEASE NOTE, THIS IS A BRAND NEW MANUFACTURE-ON-DEMAND REISSUE OF A LONG OUT OF PRINT RECORDING. IT IS FULLY AUTHORIZED BY THE ORIGINAL RECORD COMPANY AND COMES IN STANDARD JEWEL CASE WITH FULL ARTWORK.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00000E3G8/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

My question, for those who bought such CDs, is two-fold.

(1) Can I be sure that the service is legal? Yeah, I know, it’s on Amazon, so it should be but I want to be certain that what I buy is “safe” legally speaking

(2) What about sound quality and durability? Are they identical to the original product? A CD shelf life should be measured in decades, not years. I’ve got some that came out in the 80s and they still sound good. Can I expect the same here?

For info, here are two websites that specialize in such on-demand reissues:

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/AlbumGroup?album_group=8
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/prestocdinfo.php

2

I’ve seen quite a few cd’s offered like that. I check first to see if I can get it used at a reasonable price. I prefer the original manufactured cd. 2nd choice is getting the Amazon special reissue.

seems like a very helpful service for out of print cd’s. I’ve been satisfied. I rip them to my hard drive anyhow. The cd goes in a binder.

Some of these may be on Amazon’s digital music. I haven’t looked. That saves buying a disk and ripping the music yourself.

Its direct from Amazon and seems legal. They’d be in serious trouble if it wasn’t.

3

Amazon is not making the disc, the seller is. Considering the low total of transactions from the seller, I doubt they have permission.

The whole album is available for £3.99 from the Amazon Music Store as a digital download.