Why is most everything remastered?

@elliottbnewcombjr RIAA is not part of the discussion. It’s been a standard for a long time and not a variable regarding the remastered vs. original. What I referred to was the the actual production process for making LP’s and the practice of making an eq’d Dub that LP’s in the past were often made from. I have no idea of the percentage of releases used these dubs, or if it was mostly on rock/pop recordings. Also for popular albums that sold well, multiple pressing plants were used in different regions of the country and world. Each of these plant’s received a dub to master from, which would be second or third generation or worse.

A new mastering today could more likely come from the master itself. In any instance it’s highly unlikely a new mastering would use the old technique of a specially eq’d vinyl dub that was meant to keep LP’s from skipping, etc. on mass market turntables/carts of the past. 

@audioguy85

"I'm amazed how many 1950-1960's treasures I've found in the thrift stores. Nothing can compare to the sound of these old records. The engineers knew what they were doing back then, a lost art, gone forever....scoop up that old vinyl."

Yes, there must have been some very talented folk working on the production side back in those days.

Those records might be going cheap nowadays, but at the time they were quite expensive prestidge items. It's no exaggeration to say that some of them sound fabulous.

Especially many of those recorded with a string section. It was almost an art form in itself.

@cd318

"Those records might be going cheap nowadays, but at the time they were quite expensive prestidge items."

betterrecords.com is selling some of these records for hundreds of dollars...even on ebay the prices are sometimes crazy. I like it when I find some of these old records still in great shape in the thrift store for a buck. They are getting a bit harder to find In good shape, as a lot of them have been trashed. I’ll never understand how someone could have been so careless with some of these gems.

Just a few examples,  got a NM Sheherazade Fritz Reiner RCA white dog pressing for 12 bucks on Discogs.  Today, at local thrift store, I picked up a vg++ to NM copy of Capital records rainbow  -mono-  Carousel, with a young Shiley Jones, one dollar. 

voodoolounge

Good thread. No doubt that there is a cash-grab aspect to this business. On the flipside, probably not a bad idea to have a modern back-up on file. I tend to collect 1st pressing CD and SACD discs. As above, some Remasters sound better while others do not. I do not mind a little tape hiss on those flat transfers from the 80's.

Yes, I do own many variations of the CD/SACD except MQA coded titles.

New is not always better.

Happy Listening!

Great question - I used to think along the same lines.  There are legal reasons, however. It's a method for artists to get the ownership of their work back - if it is remastered, it counts as an original copyright.  Otherwise all the music belongs to the record companies.