WEBVTT 00:00:00.759 --> 00:00:03.759 Um, imagine for a second that you are sitting 00:00:03.759 --> 00:00:06.320 on the executive board of the biggest, you know, 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:08.279 most powerful record label in the world. Right. 00:00:08.380 --> 00:00:11.119 The total industry Titan. Exactly. And you've 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:13.820 just signed the Beatles. I mean, they are absolutely 00:00:13.820 --> 00:00:16.460 blowing up the charts locally and you are totally 00:00:16.460 --> 00:00:18.839 ready to unleash them on the United States, which 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:21.839 is the dream for any UK label. Totally. And the 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:24.879 best part is you own a massive American subsidiary 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:27.570 company. So the pipeline is already built you 00:00:27.570 --> 00:00:29.809 literally just send the tapes over simple enough, 00:00:29.850 --> 00:00:32.469 right? You would think but your own American 00:00:32.469 --> 00:00:35.270 branch listens to the greatest band of the 20th 00:00:35.270 --> 00:00:38.570 century and essentially says No, thanks. We don't 00:00:38.570 --> 00:00:40.829 really think this is gonna sell it is still mind 00:00:40.829 --> 00:00:43.609 -boggling to hear that out loud Right. So just 00:00:43.609 --> 00:00:46.009 to get the Beatles on American radio, you have 00:00:46.009 --> 00:00:48.509 to bypass your own multi -million dollar corporate 00:00:48.509 --> 00:00:52.750 empire And you have to beg this tiny improvised 00:00:52.750 --> 00:00:56.149 import label to use their back alley vendor connections 00:00:56.149 --> 00:00:59.109 to sneak the records into the U .S. I mean, it 00:00:59.109 --> 00:01:01.270 sounds like a rejected Hollywood script, honestly, 00:01:01.990 --> 00:01:05.030 but that is. the exact historical reality of 00:01:05.030 --> 00:01:07.950 how the global music business actually operated 00:01:07.950 --> 00:01:10.909 in the early 1960s. It really is. Because, you 00:01:10.909 --> 00:01:12.810 know, we look at streaming today and we just 00:01:12.810 --> 00:01:15.310 assume music has always flowed frictionlessly 00:01:15.310 --> 00:01:18.469 across borders. But back then, the Atlantic Ocean 00:01:18.469 --> 00:01:21.450 was like a massive, highly defensive fortress. 00:01:21.549 --> 00:01:24.209 Which is exactly why today's deep dive is going 00:01:24.209 --> 00:01:26.650 to completely change how you look at the history 00:01:26.650 --> 00:01:29.510 of global pop culture. Yeah. We are tracing the 00:01:29.510 --> 00:01:32.549 bizarre accidental empire of a British label 00:01:32.549 --> 00:01:34.849 called Stateside Records. And for the record 00:01:34.849 --> 00:01:37.530 they memorably styled that name with a giant 00:01:37.530 --> 00:01:40.150 dollar sign for the S which I mean that tells 00:01:40.150 --> 00:01:41.709 you everything you need to know about their mission 00:01:41.709 --> 00:01:43.810 right there. Oh absolutely the dollar sign is 00:01:43.810 --> 00:01:47.170 so bold. We're gonna explore how this improvised 00:01:47.170 --> 00:01:50.890 basically stopgap label launched in 1962 accidentally 00:01:50.890 --> 00:01:53.069 became the ultimate cultural pipeline across 00:01:53.069 --> 00:01:56.000 the Atlantic. It really is a masterclass in the 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:58.159 mechanics of the 20th century music industry. 00:01:58.519 --> 00:02:01.079 We're going to dig into the physical logistics 00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:04.480 of pressing records, the absurd corporate fumbles 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:07.879 that almost kept the Beatles out of America and 00:02:07.879 --> 00:02:12.219 how complex international monopoly laws completely 00:02:12.219 --> 00:02:15.000 dictate the music catalogs we're legally allowed 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:17.639 to listen to today. Yeah, if you've ever wondered 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:20.759 how American soul and R &B actually reached British 00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:23.389 ears before the Internet. This is your perfect 00:02:23.389 --> 00:02:26.430 shortcut. Let's start with the physical reality 00:02:26.430 --> 00:02:29.090 of 1962, because I think it's hard for us to 00:02:29.090 --> 00:02:31.349 really conceptualize just how isolated national 00:02:31.349 --> 00:02:33.569 music markets used to be. Very isolated. You 00:02:33.569 --> 00:02:36.370 couldn't just upload an mp3. Exactly. If an American 00:02:36.370 --> 00:02:38.909 R &B artist had a massive hit in Detroit, a kid 00:02:38.909 --> 00:02:41.139 in London couldn't just pull it up or buy it 00:02:41.139 --> 00:02:43.719 easily. Right, not without paying exorbitant 00:02:43.719 --> 00:02:45.639 import tariffs. And that's assuming they could 00:02:45.639 --> 00:02:47.860 even find a specialty shop that shipped the physical 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:50.759 vinyl across the ocean on a literal boat. Yeah, 00:02:50.860 --> 00:02:53.060 the sheer cost and the time delay of shipping 00:02:53.060 --> 00:02:55.520 heavy boxes of fragile shellac and vinyl was 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:59.330 just totally prohibitive. So for decades, the 00:02:59.330 --> 00:03:01.250 standard practice for a British label was to 00:03:01.250 --> 00:03:03.370 just buy the sheet music for an American hit, 00:03:03.949 --> 00:03:07.509 hire a clean -cut British crooner, and record 00:03:07.509 --> 00:03:09.909 a sanitized cover version for the local market. 00:03:10.050 --> 00:03:12.310 Which is so funny to think about now. But by 00:03:12.310 --> 00:03:14.849 1962, British use culture is getting pretty savvy. 00:03:14.930 --> 00:03:17.389 They don't want the sanitized local cover anymore. 00:03:17.550 --> 00:03:19.629 No, they want the real thing. Exactly. They want 00:03:19.629 --> 00:03:22.949 the authentic American sound, the raw rock, the 00:03:22.949 --> 00:03:27.090 R &B, the soul, and the major UK label, EMI. 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:30.139 suddenly finds itself in an absolute panic. Well, 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:32.819 yeah, because they were facing a massive structural 00:03:32.819 --> 00:03:35.659 deficit. Their primary domestic rivals had already 00:03:35.659 --> 00:03:37.960 figured out how to bypass the physical shipping 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:40.599 problem through clever licensing. Oh, right, 00:03:40.780 --> 00:03:43.439 Decca and Pi. Yep. Decca Records had built a 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:45.639 highly successful imprint called London American 00:03:45.639 --> 00:03:48.379 Recordings, and Pi Records had Pi International. 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:50.879 And instead of shipping the actual heavy records, 00:03:50.979 --> 00:03:53.159 these labels were signing complex legal agreements 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:56.120 with American labels to ship over just the master 00:03:56.120 --> 00:03:58.150 tapes. the tapes, right, which is so much lighter 00:03:58.150 --> 00:04:01.169 and cheaper. Exactly. Then Deca and Pi would 00:04:01.169 --> 00:04:03.669 just press the records locally in their own British 00:04:03.669 --> 00:04:06.650 factories, slap their own label on it, and sell 00:04:06.650 --> 00:04:09.150 the authentic American music directly to British 00:04:09.150 --> 00:04:12.870 teenagers. And EMI, who is like the giant in 00:04:12.870 --> 00:04:16.149 the room, suddenly has a gaping hole in their 00:04:16.149 --> 00:04:18.689 infrastructure because their own version of this, 00:04:18.949 --> 00:04:22.250 a label called Top Rank, had just abruptly folded. 00:04:22.430 --> 00:04:24.990 It left them completely exposed. Totally. They 00:04:24.990 --> 00:04:27.370 are bleeding market share to Deca and Pi every 00:04:27.370 --> 00:04:29.790 single day. So they scramble. They hire this 00:04:29.790 --> 00:04:31.769 guy, Fred Oxon, who was the former head of the 00:04:31.769 --> 00:04:33.810 recently deceased top rank, and they essentially 00:04:33.810 --> 00:04:36.829 tell him to build a lifeboat. And that lifeboat 00:04:36.829 --> 00:04:40.199 is Stateside Records. Right. But the actual mechanics 00:04:40.199 --> 00:04:42.819 of how Oxen built Stateside are what made it 00:04:42.819 --> 00:04:46.319 so incredibly effective. EMI enforced a very, 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:49.259 very strict division of labor here. How so? Well, 00:04:49.540 --> 00:04:51.540 if you were a Britishite, even when they inherited 00:04:51.540 --> 00:04:53.560 from the top -rank collapse, like the really 00:04:53.560 --> 00:04:56.060 popular singer John Leighton, EMI immediately 00:04:56.060 --> 00:04:58.100 shuffled you off to their legacy domestic labels 00:04:58.100 --> 00:05:00.759 like Columbia or his master's voice. Oh, I see. 00:05:01.060 --> 00:05:03.800 Yeah. Stateside was completely quarantined. It 00:05:03.800 --> 00:05:07.279 was designed with a singular, pure focus, which 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:10.439 was issuing source strictly from American suppliers. 00:05:10.680 --> 00:05:13.399 Okay let's unpack this because the strategy here 00:05:13.399 --> 00:05:16.300 is actually brilliant. By quarantining the label 00:05:16.300 --> 00:05:19.120 stateside essentially becomes the UK's exclusive 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:21.339 import boutique. I like that comparison. Yeah 00:05:21.339 --> 00:05:23.540 it's like having that one hyper cool friend who 00:05:23.540 --> 00:05:26.120 travels to Tokyo or New York and comes back with 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:29.540 the absolute best highly curated cultural artifacts, 00:05:30.180 --> 00:05:32.819 you know, the obscure denim, the indie zines, 00:05:32.899 --> 00:05:35.019 the stuff you absolutely cannot get in your hometown. 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:37.379 That is exactly what it was like. That was stateside. 00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:39.699 They were crossing the Atlantic to curate a very 00:05:39.699 --> 00:05:42.519 specific vibe. They were pulling from these incredible 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:45.620 U .S. labels like Amy Bell, 20th Century Fox, 00:05:45.980 --> 00:05:48.339 Scepter, VJ, and A &M. If we connect this to 00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:50.959 the bigger picture, what stateside was executing 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:53.860 was high -level cultural arbitrage. Oh, arbitrage. 00:05:54.060 --> 00:05:57.480 Like in finance. Exactly like in finance. Arbitrage 00:05:57.480 --> 00:05:59.750 is buying an asset in one market where it's cheap 00:05:59.750 --> 00:06:02.189 and selling it in another where it's highly valuable. 00:06:02.750 --> 00:06:06.209 And in 1962, the Authentic American Sound was 00:06:06.209 --> 00:06:09.069 an immensely valuable asset to British teenagers. 00:06:09.329 --> 00:06:11.329 Right, they were desperate for it. But the U 00:06:11.329 --> 00:06:14.529 .S. independent labels had absolutely zero physical 00:06:14.529 --> 00:06:16.970 distribution in Europe, so statesides stepped 00:06:16.970 --> 00:06:20.399 in to close that gap. By styling their logo with 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:22.899 that dollar sign, they weren't just selling vinyl. 00:06:23.100 --> 00:06:25.920 They were packaging and selling the entire aesthetic 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:28.680 of American modernity. And the execution was 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:31.740 just flawless right out of the gate. I mean, 00:06:31.980 --> 00:06:34.240 Stateside's very first hit was a track called 00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:36.779 Palisades Park by Freddie Cannon. A great track. 00:06:36.860 --> 00:06:39.180 Yeah. And EMI didn't produce a second of that 00:06:39.180 --> 00:06:41.579 song. They just licensed the master tape from 00:06:41.579 --> 00:06:43.759 a relatively small American supplier called Swan 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:46.540 Records, pressed it in the UK, and scored a massive 00:06:46.540 --> 00:06:48.889 hit. Which was huge because... Because that single 00:06:48.889 --> 00:06:51.670 proved the entire infrastructure worked. It established 00:06:51.670 --> 00:06:53.529 trust with the American independence. If they 00:06:53.529 --> 00:06:56.540 finally saw the money coming in. Exactly. U .S. 00:06:56.620 --> 00:06:58.920 labels realized that if they handed their precious 00:06:58.920 --> 00:07:01.680 masters to Fred Oxon, stateside would actually 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:04.500 get them onto British radio and into British 00:07:04.500 --> 00:07:06.899 record shops, generating all these royalties 00:07:06.899 --> 00:07:09.060 from a market they previously couldn't even touch. 00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:10.819 But this is where I need you to explain something 00:07:10.819 --> 00:07:12.639 to me, because we hit a point in the timeline 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:15.939 that just defies all corporate logic. Okay, weigh 00:07:15.939 --> 00:07:19.139 it on me. So what does this all mean? EMI builds 00:07:19.139 --> 00:07:22.180 this massive pipeline to import American music, 00:07:22.579 --> 00:07:24.980 but their own American branch rejects the Beatles. 00:07:25.579 --> 00:07:28.339 So they have to use their import vendors to export 00:07:28.339 --> 00:07:32.259 the biggest band in history. I mean, EMI literally 00:07:32.259 --> 00:07:35.319 owned Capitol Records, an absolute titan in America. 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:37.600 Why on earth did they need stateside to deal 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:40.360 with small indie labels when they literally owned 00:07:40.360 --> 00:07:42.720 Capitol? It's wild, I know. But it happened because 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:45.500 the corporate structures of the 1960s were intensely 00:07:45.500 --> 00:07:48.269 siloed. Siloed how? We have to remember that 00:07:48.269 --> 00:07:50.389 parent companies and subsidiaries did not operate 00:07:50.389 --> 00:07:53.649 like a unified global hive mind back then. Capital 00:07:53.649 --> 00:07:55.930 Records in Los Angeles operated with immense 00:07:55.930 --> 00:07:58.009 autonomy. They just did their own thing. Right. 00:07:58.269 --> 00:08:00.250 They understood the American market, and frankly, 00:08:00.529 --> 00:08:02.629 they viewed the British music scene with a lot 00:08:02.629 --> 00:08:05.389 of skepticism. Wait, hold on. You were telling 00:08:05.389 --> 00:08:08.670 me a subsidiary had the legal right to just tell 00:08:08.670 --> 00:08:12.699 their parent company, EMI, No, we aren't releasing 00:08:12.699 --> 00:08:15.339 your music. How does that even happen when EMI 00:08:15.339 --> 00:08:19.139 is holding the early pre -1964 recordings of 00:08:19.139 --> 00:08:22.620 the Beatles? It happens because local executives 00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:25.100 firmly believed they knew their market better 00:08:25.100 --> 00:08:27.120 than the executives sitting in a boardroom in 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:30.079 London. Capital's A &R department listened to 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:32.600 those early Beatles tracks and they just fundamentally 00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:35.120 misjudged them. That is just the biggest fumble 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:37.419 in music history. It really might be, but the 00:08:37.419 --> 00:08:39.600 prevailing wisdom in the American industry at 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:42.649 the time was that British acts were just novelties. 00:08:43.149 --> 00:08:44.950 They genuinely didn't think the Beatles' sound 00:08:44.950 --> 00:08:47.289 would translate to American teenagers who were 00:08:47.289 --> 00:08:49.950 used to much slicker domestic pop. So Capitol 00:08:49.950 --> 00:08:52.750 exercised their right of first refusal and passed. 00:08:52.970 --> 00:08:56.230 Wow. So EMI has the Beatles. They know it's explosive. 00:08:56.750 --> 00:08:58.929 Their own American branch locks the door. Are 00:08:58.929 --> 00:09:00.889 you saying they just dug into the stateside Rolodex 00:09:00.889 --> 00:09:03.490 to find a back door into the U .S.? That is precisely 00:09:03.490 --> 00:09:06.879 the mechanism they used. The transatlantic highway 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:09.220 stateside bill wasn't just a pipeline for vinyl. 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:12.320 It was a vital network of personal corporate 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:14.440 trust. Right. They actually knew these guys. 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:18.289 Yes. EMI looked at the independent labels that 00:09:18.289 --> 00:09:20.669 Fred Oxon had been licensing from, specifically 00:09:20.669 --> 00:09:24.309 VJ Records and Swann Records. And because stateside 00:09:24.309 --> 00:09:26.990 had been faithfully paying royalties to VJ and 00:09:26.990 --> 00:09:29.029 Swann for importing their American hits into 00:09:29.029 --> 00:09:32.610 the UK, EMI could call those specific executives 00:09:32.610 --> 00:09:35.009 and say, hey, we have a favor to ask. It means 00:09:35.009 --> 00:09:37.049 you to take a risk and press this British band 00:09:37.049 --> 00:09:39.549 in America. Exactly. It's staggering when you 00:09:39.549 --> 00:09:41.730 really think about it. The Beatles' entire initial 00:09:41.730 --> 00:09:44.549 footprint in the United States was totally dependent. 00:09:44.809 --> 00:09:48.090 on the goodwill generated by an improvised import 00:09:48.090 --> 00:09:50.789 label. It's the ultimate irony. Seriously. If 00:09:50.789 --> 00:09:52.850 stateside hadn't licensed Palisades Park from 00:09:52.850 --> 00:09:55.470 Swan Records, maybe Swan doesn't take EMI's call. 00:09:55.870 --> 00:09:57.929 The biggest band in history had to be smuggled 00:09:57.929 --> 00:10:00.149 into America through the vendors of their own 00:10:00.149 --> 00:10:02.889 company's import boutique. It perfectly illustrates 00:10:02.889 --> 00:10:06.169 just how fragile cultural exchange was before 00:10:06.169 --> 00:10:08.570 globalization. I mean, you couldn't just dictate 00:10:08.570 --> 00:10:10.389 taste from a boardroom in London. You needed 00:10:10.889 --> 00:10:13.250 boots on the ground, independent risk takers 00:10:13.250 --> 00:10:15.490 who actually trusted each other's musical instincts. 00:10:15.909 --> 00:10:18.269 And speaking of those musical instincts, the 00:10:18.269 --> 00:10:20.960 massive revenue and corporate clout generated 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:24.539 by those early pop and rock wins gave stateside 00:10:24.539 --> 00:10:27.299 the leverage to start taking risks on entirely 00:10:27.299 --> 00:10:29.919 different niche cultural movements. Oh, absolutely. 00:10:29.980 --> 00:10:31.740 They didn't just stick to rock and roll. Right. 00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:34.240 They started hunting down the absolute bleeding 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:37.399 edge of American R &B. Yes. The capital they 00:10:37.399 --> 00:10:39.340 generated allowed them to acquire the rights 00:10:39.340 --> 00:10:41.980 to Tamla Motown Gordie from Oriole Records. And 00:10:41.980 --> 00:10:44.200 this is a massive, massive turning point for 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:47.340 British culture. We are talking about 45 incredible 00:10:47.340 --> 00:10:50.570 Motown tracks released in the UK by state This 00:10:50.570 --> 00:10:54.269 includes the massive 1964 number one hit Baby 00:10:54.269 --> 00:10:56.350 Love. An absolute classic. Now what blows my 00:10:56.350 --> 00:10:58.269 mind is that Stateside was doing this long before 00:10:58.269 --> 00:11:01.049 the official UK Tamil Motown label even existed. 00:11:01.830 --> 00:11:03.970 They were curating the Motown sound for British 00:11:03.970 --> 00:11:06.970 years before Motown even had its own international 00:11:06.970 --> 00:11:10.110 branding. The historical footprint of that specific 00:11:10.110 --> 00:11:13.490 era of curation really cannot be overstated. 00:11:13.789 --> 00:11:16.320 Decades later... The records Stateside brought 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:19.320 over during this window became the foundational 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:21.860 texts for the Northern Soul movement. OK, for 00:11:21.860 --> 00:11:23.539 you listening, if you aren't familiar, Northern 00:11:23.539 --> 00:11:26.740 Soul was this incredibly intense underground 00:11:26.740 --> 00:11:30.539 music and dance subculture that exploded in northern 00:11:30.539 --> 00:11:33.360 England. They were completely obsessed with a 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:37.240 very specific style of mid -tempo, heavy beat, 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:40.440 obscure American soul music. And because Stateside 00:11:40.440 --> 00:11:43.320 had been importing those exact obscure American 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:46.639 soul records in the 60s, those original stateside 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:50.000 pressings became absolute holy grails for DJs 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:52.340 and collectors in the northern soul clubs. Wow. 00:11:52.500 --> 00:11:55.019 Yeah, the label essentially seeded an entire 00:11:55.019 --> 00:11:57.220 subculture years before it actually bloomed. 00:11:57.440 --> 00:11:58.960 Here's where it gets really interesting to me, 00:11:58.980 --> 00:12:01.200 though. It wasn't just the audio they were importing, 00:12:01.240 --> 00:12:03.740 it was the entire visual aesthetic. Of the labels 00:12:03.740 --> 00:12:06.559 themselves? Yes. The sources detail stateside's 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:08.700 visual identity, and it was a radical departure. 00:12:08.919 --> 00:12:10.919 Like, if you look at standard British records 00:12:10.919 --> 00:12:14.000 from the 50s and early 60s, they look like journals 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:18.600 exactly script fonts boring crests very conservative 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:20.899 yeah stateside throws that completely out the 00:12:20.899 --> 00:12:23.500 window they introduced this distinct aggressive 00:12:23.500 --> 00:12:26.159 black label design if you bought a stateside 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:29.299 single there's a giant bowl 45 printed right 00:12:29.299 --> 00:12:31.690 on it And for the albums, they used a really 00:12:31.690 --> 00:12:35.149 vibrant colored logo. Yeah. And I have to imagine 00:12:35.149 --> 00:12:37.590 this wasn't just a graphic designer going rogue. 00:12:38.210 --> 00:12:41.090 This feels like deliberate psychological warfare 00:12:41.090 --> 00:12:43.929 in the record bins. Was it deliberate branding 00:12:43.929 --> 00:12:46.870 genius? What's fascinating here is that you are 00:12:46.870 --> 00:12:49.009 completely right. It was a calculated branding 00:12:49.009 --> 00:12:51.610 maneuver, and it was so successful, it forced 00:12:51.610 --> 00:12:54.269 an industry wide redesign. Really? An industry 00:12:54.269 --> 00:12:57.090 wide redesign? Absolutely. When a teenager flipped 00:12:57.090 --> 00:12:59.049 through a stack of conservative British records, 00:12:59.660 --> 00:13:02.820 that sleek black stateside label just screamed 00:13:02.820 --> 00:13:04.919 modernity. It looked American. It felt like a 00:13:04.919 --> 00:13:06.679 premium import, even though it was trust in a 00:13:06.679 --> 00:13:09.120 factory in Middlesex. It's so smart. It stood 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:10.919 out so much that the rest of the industry must 00:13:10.919 --> 00:13:13.519 have panicked again. They absolutely did panic. 00:13:13.659 --> 00:13:16.899 The very next year, that exact design philosophy, 00:13:17.379 --> 00:13:21.159 the bold branding, the cleaner typography, the 00:13:21.159 --> 00:13:23.940 modernized layout, it was adopted as the template 00:13:23.940 --> 00:13:28.259 for the rest of EMI's empire. No way. Yes. Columbia, 00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:31.700 Parlophone, his master's voice, they all had 00:13:31.700 --> 00:13:34.360 to completely update their visual identities 00:13:34.360 --> 00:13:37.159 just to keep pace with the aesthetics stateside 00:13:37.159 --> 00:13:39.240 had introduced. So let's tell you the scoreboard 00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:42.379 here. Stateside saves the Beatles US launch, 00:13:42.620 --> 00:13:45.480 they pioneer Motown in the UK, they basically 00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:48.220 invent the Northern Soul catalog, and they force 00:13:48.220 --> 00:13:50.480 a complete redesign of British record branding. 00:13:50.899 --> 00:13:53.500 Not bad for a stopgap lifeboat. Not bad at all. 00:13:53.559 --> 00:13:56.200 They are at the absolute peak of their power, 00:13:56.259 --> 00:13:58.879 which makes it deeply confusing that they just 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:01.340 vanish. Like if they were this influential, why 00:14:01.340 --> 00:14:04.659 was the label quietly executed in 1973? Well, 00:14:04.659 --> 00:14:06.700 it is the ultimate paradox of being a highly 00:14:06.700 --> 00:14:09.500 successful middleman in any industry. If you 00:14:09.500 --> 00:14:11.679 do your job too well, you prove to the people 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:13.440 on either side of you that the market is viable. 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:15.559 Oh, I see where this is going. Yeah. And once 00:14:15.559 --> 00:14:17.480 the market is proven, they start wondering why 00:14:17.480 --> 00:14:20.720 they are paying you a cut. Ah. So stateside's 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:24.379 own success was fatal. Precisely. By the late 00:14:24.379 --> 00:14:27.360 1960s, the transatlantic market was no longer 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:30.169 a mystery. The pipelines were fully established. 00:14:30.870 --> 00:14:32.990 EMI looked at the massive volume of records they 00:14:32.990 --> 00:14:35.370 were moving and decided to bypass the import 00:14:35.370 --> 00:14:37.909 boutique entirely. They cut out the middleman. 00:14:37.970 --> 00:14:40.750 They did. They started setting up direct long 00:14:40.750 --> 00:14:43.250 term licensing contracts with major American 00:14:43.250 --> 00:14:46.669 labels like Motown, Bell and DOT. They didn't 00:14:46.669 --> 00:14:49.190 need Fred Oxen to broker deals with independent 00:14:49.190 --> 00:14:51.509 suppliers anymore. The parent companies were 00:14:51.509 --> 00:14:53.970 just talking directly to each other. So the boutique 00:14:53.970 --> 00:14:57.690 is shuttered. In 1973, EMI sweeps the board. 00:14:57.519 --> 00:15:00.639 retiring stateside, along with a bunch of other 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:03.259 legacy labels, consolidating everything under 00:15:03.259 --> 00:15:06.620 new, globally unified EMI and EMI America banners. 00:15:06.860 --> 00:15:09.340 Right. The physical logistics of the 1960s had 00:15:09.340 --> 00:15:11.259 finally given way to the corporate consolidation 00:15:11.259 --> 00:15:13.440 of the 1970s, but you know, trademarks in the 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:15.840 music industry rarely stay dead forever. Because 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:18.240 they hold too much nostalgic equity. Exactly. 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:21.019 Which brings us to the resurrection. In the 1980s, 00:15:21.159 --> 00:15:23.179 EMI pulls the stateside name out of the vault, 00:15:23.460 --> 00:15:24.960 but they give it a completely different mission. 00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:28.330 It becomes a catalog reissue label. A very specific 00:15:28.330 --> 00:15:30.970 news. Yeah, its sole purpose is to specialize 00:15:30.970 --> 00:15:33.870 in reissuing classic American recordings from 00:15:33.870 --> 00:15:36.669 Capitol Records and other American labels EMI 00:15:36.669 --> 00:15:38.730 had swallowed up over the years. It is quite 00:15:38.730 --> 00:15:41.909 poetic, really. The label that originally introduced 00:15:41.909 --> 00:15:46.509 American music to the UK in the 60s is repurposed 00:15:46.509 --> 00:15:49.570 to preserve and reissue that exact same American 00:15:49.570 --> 00:15:52.409 heritage for a new generation of audiophiles 00:15:52.409 --> 00:15:55.029 in the 80s. It's a nice, tidy ending, except 00:15:55.029 --> 00:15:57.519 we haven't talked about international monopoly 00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:00.100 laws yet. Oh boy. And this is where the story 00:16:00.100 --> 00:16:03.759 jumps from music history into a brutal lesson 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:06.220 on modern corporate asset splitting, because 00:16:06.220 --> 00:16:08.080 eventually the European Union gets involved. 00:16:08.259 --> 00:16:10.580 Right. The legal architecture of the modern music 00:16:10.580 --> 00:16:13.080 conglomerate is incredibly fragile, and it is 00:16:13.080 --> 00:16:15.399 entirely subject to the whims of international 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:17.620 trade regulators. Which is terrifying for music 00:16:17.620 --> 00:16:20.379 preservation. It really is. As the major record 00:16:20.379 --> 00:16:22.799 labels kept merging and buying each other out 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:25.019 over the decades, the European Union stepped 00:16:25.019 --> 00:16:28.080 in to prevent a total monopoly. They mandated 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:31.799 a divestiture of certain EMI assets. OK. Explain 00:16:31.799 --> 00:16:34.059 the mechanics of that divestiture for us, because 00:16:34.059 --> 00:16:36.559 the outcome here is totally absurd. How does 00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:39.980 a regulatory body actually break up a music catalog? 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:43.059 Well, the EU regulators look at market share. 00:16:43.210 --> 00:16:46.389 If a massive conglomerate like Universal Music 00:16:46.389 --> 00:16:50.049 Group buys EMI, they suddenly control too much 00:16:50.049 --> 00:16:52.850 of the global recorded music market, giving them 00:16:52.850 --> 00:16:55.250 the power to basically price gouge or freeze 00:16:55.250 --> 00:16:57.509 out independent labels. Which is obviously bad 00:16:57.509 --> 00:17:00.450 for consumers. Exactly. So to approve the merger, 00:17:00.789 --> 00:17:03.370 the EU courts demand that the conglomerate sell 00:17:03.370 --> 00:17:06.509 off specific, highly valuable pieces of the company 00:17:06.509 --> 00:17:09.309 to their rivals just to balance the scales. So 00:17:09.309 --> 00:17:11.450 it's basically the world's messiest corporate 00:17:11.450 --> 00:17:14.069 divorce. way to put it. And the way they split 00:17:14.069 --> 00:17:17.029 the assets for stateside is mind blowing. The 00:17:17.029 --> 00:17:19.549 EU court gives the trademark like the actual 00:17:19.549 --> 00:17:22.769 stateside name, the cool dollar sign logo, the 00:17:22.769 --> 00:17:24.630 brand history to Parlophone Records Limited, 00:17:24.710 --> 00:17:26.609 which is owned by the Warner Music Group. So 00:17:26.609 --> 00:17:28.930 Warner gets the historic house. But they don't 00:17:28.930 --> 00:17:31.970 get the kids. The rights to the actual catalog 00:17:31.970 --> 00:17:35.390 of music from Capitol Records, the very music 00:17:35.390 --> 00:17:38.710 stateside had spent the last 30 years meticulously 00:17:38.710 --> 00:17:42.319 reissuing went to Universal Music Group. Universal 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:44.880 got custody of the music. Which created a totally 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:48.220 bizarre legal paradox. Warner Music owned the 00:17:48.220 --> 00:17:50.819 historic Stateside label, but they were legally 00:17:50.819 --> 00:17:53.039 barred from selling the historic music the label 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:55.880 was currently famous for. That is so rough. It 00:17:55.880 --> 00:17:58.160 was. They were forced to immediately delete the 00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:00.200 entire capital reissue catalog that Stateside 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:03.539 had built since the 1980s. This raises an important 00:18:03.539 --> 00:18:05.910 question though. We always talk about music as 00:18:05.910 --> 00:18:08.589 this permanent, untouchable archive, like it's 00:18:08.589 --> 00:18:11.049 etched in stone forever. Right, but this completely 00:18:11.049 --> 00:18:13.410 shatters that illusion. It absolutely does. Your 00:18:13.410 --> 00:18:15.630 ability to walk into a record store and buy a 00:18:15.630 --> 00:18:18.089 classic 1960s pressing, or even your ability 00:18:18.089 --> 00:18:20.410 to pull up a curated playlist of reissues on 00:18:20.410 --> 00:18:23.269 a streaming service, is entirely at the mercy 00:18:23.269 --> 00:18:25.769 of corporate asset splitting. It's wild to think 00:18:25.769 --> 00:18:28.990 about. A single anti -monopoly ruling in Brussels 00:18:28.990 --> 00:18:32.630 basically wiped a massive decades old reissue 00:18:32.630 --> 00:18:36.250 catalog off the map overnight simply because 00:18:36.250 --> 00:18:38.690 the physical assets and the intellectual property 00:18:38.690 --> 00:18:41.549 were violently separated. But, you know, Warner 00:18:41.549 --> 00:18:44.009 isn't going to just let the historic house sit 00:18:44.009 --> 00:18:47.589 empty. In the summer of 2017, Warner Music's 00:18:47.589 --> 00:18:50.690 global catalog division officially relaunched 00:18:50.690 --> 00:18:52.910 the stateside label. They had to do something 00:18:52.910 --> 00:18:54.660 with it. Right. They didn't have the capital 00:18:54.660 --> 00:18:57.180 records anymore, so they pivoted. They refocused 00:18:57.180 --> 00:19:00.799 the label on classic jazz, soul, and R &B releases 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:03.039 from the catalogs they did actually own. Which 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:05.140 makes sense. Yeah, they essentially took stateside 00:19:05.140 --> 00:19:08.259 all the way back to its 1962 roots, acting as 00:19:08.259 --> 00:19:11.480 a highly curated boutique for incredible American 00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:13.980 music. And the brand survived because it still 00:19:13.980 --> 00:19:16.480 meant something. The nostalgia factor. Exactly. 00:19:16.819 --> 00:19:19.119 The cultural cachet they built 50 years prior 00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:22.119 with those bold black labels, the Motown imports 00:19:22.119 --> 00:19:24.759 and the Northern Soul credibility. It was strong 00:19:24.759 --> 00:19:27.200 enough to justify a resurrection even when the 00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:29.279 underlying corporate machinery had been completely 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:31.640 dismantled. So let's step back and look at the 00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:33.930 sheer scale. of this roller coaster. We start 00:19:33.930 --> 00:19:37.430 in 1962 with an emergency stopgap label designed 00:19:37.430 --> 00:19:39.269 just to fight off a couple of domestic rivals. 00:19:39.490 --> 00:19:42.130 Just a temporary lifeboat. And from that defensive 00:19:42.130 --> 00:19:44.930 maneuver, they establish a transatlantic pipeline 00:19:44.930 --> 00:19:48.039 that introduces Motown to Europe. accidentally 00:19:48.039 --> 00:19:50.140 provides the back door for the Beatles to conquer 00:19:50.140 --> 00:19:53.119 America, and sets visual design trends that force 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:55.880 a very conservative industry to modernize. It's 00:19:55.880 --> 00:19:58.079 an unbelievable run. Then they are killed off 00:19:58.079 --> 00:20:00.599 by their own success, resurrected as a nostalgia 00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:03.740 machine in the 80s, torn limb from limb by EU 00:20:03.740 --> 00:20:06.460 monopoly regulators, and finally reborn again 00:20:06.460 --> 00:20:09.079 in 2017. Like a phoenix rising from corporate 00:20:09.079 --> 00:20:11.299 paperwork. Seriously. And for you listening, 00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:13.099 I want you to remember this story the next time 00:20:13.099 --> 00:20:15.400 you're holding a vinyl reissue, or even when 00:20:15.400 --> 00:20:17.359 you scroll to the very bottom of an album on 00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:19.819 a streaming app and look at that tiny little 00:20:19.819 --> 00:20:22.839 circle C or circle P copyright logo. Because 00:20:22.839 --> 00:20:25.220 those little logos are the scars of a decades 00:20:25.220 --> 00:20:28.299 -long game of global corporate chess. You are 00:20:28.299 --> 00:20:30.420 looking at the survivors of international trade 00:20:30.420 --> 00:20:33.480 treaties, boardroom divestitures, and massive 00:20:33.480 --> 00:20:36.039 logistical hurdles. The machinery behind the 00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:38.220 music is always shaping what you are actually 00:20:38.220 --> 00:20:41.440 allowed to hear, which leaves us with a really 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:44.490 fascinating paradox to consider. Oh. Yeah, we 00:20:44.490 --> 00:20:46.569 started this deep dive talking about how frictionless 00:20:46.569 --> 00:20:49.269 discovery is today. You just tap a screen and 00:20:49.269 --> 00:20:51.690 the algorithm instantly floods you with music 00:20:51.690 --> 00:20:54.109 from everywhere on earth. Right, instant access. 00:20:54.309 --> 00:20:57.529 But in the 1960s, a label like Stateside had 00:20:57.529 --> 00:21:00.259 to act as a meticulous gatekeeper. They had to 00:21:00.259 --> 00:21:02.720 fight to curate exactly which American records 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:05.680 crossed the ocean. And by doing that, they gave 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:08.279 shape and meaning to an entire generation of 00:21:08.279 --> 00:21:10.819 British youth culture. They were true curators. 00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:14.000 Exactly. And today, in an era of borderless, 00:21:14.279 --> 00:21:17.140 unlimited streaming, where every song ever recorded 00:21:17.140 --> 00:21:20.500 is yelling for your attention all at once, have 00:21:20.500 --> 00:21:23.079 we lost the magic of those dedicated cultural 00:21:23.079 --> 00:21:25.259 curators who actually helped us make sense of 00:21:25.259 --> 00:21:27.400 the noise? It makes you wonder if we don't desperately 00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:29.769 need a few more import boutiques. digital age. 00:21:29.990 --> 00:21:32.250 That's incredibly true. The algorithm provides 00:21:32.250 --> 00:21:34.809 volume, but it doesn't always provide context. 00:21:35.190 --> 00:21:37.490 That's a really profound thought to leave on. 00:21:37.730 --> 00:21:40.269 I think so too. Thank you for joining us on this 00:21:40.269 --> 00:21:42.829 deep dive into the chaotic history of stateside 00:21:42.829 --> 00:21:45.369 records. Keep exploring the liner notes, keep 00:21:45.369 --> 00:21:47.390 questioning what you hear, and we'll catch you 00:21:47.390 --> 00:21:47.809 next time.