Sony Broadway


Sony Broadway was a label started by Sony Music in 1991 to reissue many of the classic Columbia Records original cast recordings on CD.
Most of the big hit shows had been issued already on the Columbia label, but collectors wanted some of the less well-known titles. The new label was launched with much fanfare and a promise to digitally remaster every cast album in Columbia's vast catalogue.
The first order of business was to release the titles collectors had been frequently requesting. The new CD's included elaborate booklets with extensive liner notes and photos. Sony spared no expense to ensure the discs looked and sounded as good as possible. The earliest of these recordings were mono masters from the early LP days. Sometimes alternate takes had to be used when the original tapes/discs were damaged or otherwise unusable. Once in a while these alternate takes yielded some bonuses: dialogue and portions of songs that had not previously been heard.
The series got off to a good start in December 1991, but later releases tended to spotlight obscure flops, which had no interest beyond the core collectors group. Faced with dwindling sales, Song pulled the plug on the series in 1993. The label has kept most of these releases in print, or available as downloads.
In 1997 Sony Legacy started a new series, Columbia Broadway Masterworks that focused on remastering the major hits and adding a few rare titles to the mix:
This second group consists of the major catalogue albums that have always been and continue to be steady sellers. Even so, Sony is no longer adding titles to this series and has not issued anything under the Columbia Broadway Masterworks imprint since 2002.
With merger of Sony and BMG all cast albums formerly on the Columbia and RCA Victor/RCA Red Seal labels are under Sony's control. In April 2009, Sony announced a new joint venture with Arkivmusic to re-release a number of titles that had not previously been available on CD. Future releases will hinge on how well these sell. Arkivmusic is a service that custom-produces CD-R copies of rare or out-of-print recordings from the company-owned masters. The discs come with liner notes and all the regular packaging but are produced on CD-Rs, rather than commercially pressed compact discs.
Many of the deleted RCA and Sony albums are available from Arkivmusic, while others have been commercially reissued by DRG. The reissues on the DRG label are pressed by Sony Music Special Products.