Age of masters


Seeing new releases using re-masters which to me means they use the original 40+ year old master and twiddle some knobs.

Do 40+ year old masters still have viable iron oxide?  Would high frequencies suffer? Or do I misunderstand re-mastering?
128x128ibmjunkman
I read that Mercury is making it all available to streaming services. Nice of them...
Many record labels transferred their analogue libraries to digital to preserve the master.

Transfer of analog to digital is OK for streaming and digital releases, but it make no sense for vinyl releases, lacquer cut direct from an old mastertape is what we need on vinyl. Master tape rules anyway.
@chakster 
That's very true. But in some cases, they dare not run a decades old master tape with missing or peeling oxide, or edge damage on an ATR.