From the left — 1-CD Standard Edition, 2-CD/1-DVD Special Edition, 3-CD/1-DVD Deluxe Edition, 2-LP Vinyl Edition:

    

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Paul McCartney said on Tuesday he would reissue his extensive post-Beatles catalog through independent label Concord Music Group, dealing a blow to his former distributor, the struggling EMI Group.
Los Angeles-based Concord previously released McCartney's 2007 album "Memory Almost Full" as well as his 2009 CD/DVD hybrid "Good Evening New York City."
Both those albums were distributed under the Hear Music brand, a partnership between coffee chain Starbucks Corp and Concord, a jazz and R&B specialist co-owned by veteran TV producer Norman Lear.
EMI Group PLC handled his older material -- as a solo artist and frontman of Wings -- under an exclusive license. With that arrangement ended, McCartney has turned over his catalog of about two dozen albums to Concord.
Concord said the first reissue, the chart-topping 1973 Wings album "Band on the Run," would come out in August with bonus material.
"Since the release of 'Memory Almost Full' in 2007 I've had a good working relationship with Concord and enjoyed our mutual love of music," McCartney said in a statement.
The announcement coincides with the 40th anniversary of the release of McCartney's first solo album, "McCartney," which featured the classic-rock staple "Maybe I'm Amazed."
The deal does not affect EMI's business relationship with the Beatles. The British label reissued remastered versions of the Fab Four's albums to great fanfare last September. By January, those reissues had sold 13 million copies.
EMI, which is owned by Terra Firma, has until mid-June to raise enough cash to get the business back within the terms of its debt.
A representative for EMI declined to comment.
Concord said last week it would buy the roots label Rounder Records, home to bluegrass musician Alison Krauss.

Kudos to Concord for landing Macca and spending the money by not just issuing straight re-issues but haven't we already been triple-dipped on the McCartney catalog already!?

My DCC "Band On The Run" still remains my go to disc.

Hmmmm! I wonder who's going to remaster THESE?

How corporate is Concord? The 'mutual love of music' strikes me as a shot at the corporate ownership structure at EMI and the other majors - they're not music companies any longer, they're just arms of a conglomerate.

Alan

This is exciting news! Hopefully they'll get them right as this will probably be the only re-issue we'll ever see of these titles again. The old CD's are terribly outdated, with flat sound and poor packaging. The only thing I like about them was the addition of the appropriate non-album singles.

That's the thing. IF they were to do a great job I could be interested in buying some titles not least for the bonus tracks as many of the UK issued Paul McCartney collection discs had the life sucked out of them.

I imagine that like myself, many member of this forum have concerns about how these CDs will sound.

I just found the following contact information for Concord music on their website:

Phone: (800) 551-5299

Email: customerservice@concordmusicgroup.com

Concord Music Group / Infinity Resources, Inc
900 N. Rohlwing Road
Itasca, IL 60143

Start calling / writing & messaging.
Do it TODAY & let them know what you want. Make it clear that you want an uncompressed, non-brickwalled release.
Let them know that if Band On The Run sounds terrible, you're not likely to buy the others...
We're the freaks who'll be buying this, right?

Unless the bonus material is compelling, I'll stick with my 25th anniversary addition of Band On The Run.

Glad to see the Macca reissues are coming out in chronological order.

Same here.

Though, if the remastering is good, I'll run, not walk, for a new copy of Tug Of War.

I love the 25th BOTR double disc..it'll be hard to make it better. In fact, Paul dedicated the remaster to Linda. As for the remainder of his catalog, if it's good, I'll be buying.

Here is Concord's annoucement from newswires last evening:

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Apr. 20, 2010— Paul
McCartney’s MPL and Concord Music Group, one of the world’s leading
independent music companies today announced an historic agreement to
globally market and distribute McCartney’s venerated solo and Wings
catalog, which encompass 40 years of cherished, classic material from
the most successful songwriter and recording artist in music
history. Indeed, the music legend has sold an astonishing 100 million solo
singles and 700 million albums world-wide in his unparalleled
career. The announcement coincides with the 40th anniversary of McCartney, his
fabled first solo album released April, 1970.
This exclusive global arrangement, will cover both physical and
digital distribution of McCartney’s treasured post Beatles catalog
including landmark solo albums such as McCartney, Ram, McCartney II,
Tug Of War, Pipes of Peace, Give My Regards To Broad Street, Press To
Play, Flowers in the Dirt, Off the Ground, Flaming Pie, Driving Rain,
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, Memory Almost Full, and Good
Evening New York City. The classic Wings albums include Wildlife, Red
Rose Speedway, Band On The Run, Venus and Mars, Wings At The Speed of
Sound, Wings Over America, London Town and Back To The Egg. The
catalog also includes the inventive, highly regarded albums recorded
under the McCartney pseudonyms Percy "Thrills" Thrillington, The
Fireman and Twin Freaks.
The indispensible and remarkably enduring collection of songs
represented in McCartney’s post 1970 collected works include the gems
"Maybe I’m Amazed", "Another Day", "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", "My
Love", "Live & Let Die", "Band On The Run", "Jet", "Listen To What The
Man Said", "Silly Love Songs", "Let ’Em In", "With A Little Luck",
"Mull Of Kintyre", "Coming Up", "Ebony and Ivory", "Say Say Say", "No
More Lonely Nights", "My Brave Face", "Hope Of Deliverance", "Fine
Line", and "Dance Tonight" among many others.
McCartney fans can look forward to an ambitious and rewarding reissue
program beginning in August of 2010 with Band On The Run; Paul
McCartney & Wings’ classic 1 album from 1973 that spawned the
immortal title song as well as the smash hit "Jet". It will be
available in a variety of configurations, including a special
collector’s multi-disc edition with remastered audio, enhanced
packaging and rare bonus content.
In 2007 Concord Records and Starbucks partnered to form Hear Music
whose inaugural release was Paul McCartney’s highly successful,
critically acclaimed album Memory Almost Full. The McCartney-Concord
relationship has since blossomed to include the 2009 release of
McCartney’s historic multi-disc live CD/DVD Good Evening New York City
and now this landmark multi-year global marketing and distribution
partnership.
"Since the release of Memory Almost Full in 2007 I’ve had a good
working relationship with Concord and enjoyed our mutual love of
music," stated McCartney. "I’m looking forward to continuing this
relationship with the new catalog campaign. I’m always looking for new
ways and opportunities to get my music to people and Concord share
this passion."
"Working with Paul McCartney, the MPL team and this tremendous catalog
is an unbelievable honor," stated Glen Barros, Concord Music Group
President and CEO. "To so many of us here at Concord and to millions
of people all over the world, Paul’s music has formed a big part of
’life’s soundtrack’. So to now be a part of representing this amazing
body of work is nothing short of a dream come true."

About Concord Music Group:
Concord Music Group is one of the largest independent record and music
publishing companies in the world and owner of a rich and historically
significant catalog of recordings. Concord Music Group’s legendary
family of labels includes Concord Records, Concord Jazz, Fantasy,
Stax, Milestone, Riverside, Specialty, Telarc, Peak, Heads Up,
Prestige and most recent acquisition, famed American roots label
Rounder Records, further strengthening Concord’s independent
leadership position. They include titles from some of the most admired
and enduring names in music, including Ray Charles, John Coltrane,
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Isaac
Hayes, Little Richard, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Rosemary
Clooney, George Shearing and Mel Torme. The group’s current roster of
world-class artists includes: Alison Krauss, Chick Corea, Kurt Elling,
Robert Plant, Christian Scott, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Sergio Mendes,
B‚la Fleck, Alejandro Escovedo, Esperanza Spalding, Macy Gray and
Angie Stone. In 2007, Concord partnered with Starbucks Entertainment
to form Hear Music, an innovative record label rooted in quality,
authenticity and passion. Hear Music works directly with artists, both
emerging and established, to bring quality music to the widest
possible audience, in both Starbucks locations and traditional music
retailers worldwide. Hear Music has released records from Paul
McCartney, James Taylor, John Mellencamp, Elvis Costello and Playing
For Change.

Today's NY Times has a short piece about this in the business section. It points out that McCartney/Wings EMI catalog titles sold a total of 95,000 in the US last year. Not insubstantial, but moving the catolog won't be a huge loss for EMI, except in prestige.

However, a number of his fans have held onto the 1993 remasters & have been waiting for his catalog to be sonically upgraded.
With that in mind, a number of people would have refrained from buying anything of his as a result.

where's the box set?

That's in part because EMI has completely neglected this catalog for nearly two decades. Only a special edition of Band on the Run and the 2 CD comp Wingspan have been decently packaged and sonically worthy. EMI is a perfect example of what's wrong with the music industry today. They've neglected to sonically update most of its artists catalogs, some of them major in stature. Hell, they haven't even released most of the early Bob Seger albums on CD, EVER! And it took them 20 years to get their prized jewel, The Beatles, done correctly. The Steve Miller catalog is almost completely gone from existence, etc. etc.

Well, now that Wingspan will no doubt be going bye-bye, who knows?

It's also in part because McCartney's solo catalog is just not as good as his Beatles material.

Only Harrison can truly say his solo stuff approaches the Beatles.

I mean, if he weren't dead.

Lennon could too.