The New Zealand reissue programme
In 2012, given the breadth of the Universal New Zealand catalogue, the company embarked on an extensive reissue programme. The scope was ambitious: to reissue everything the company owned which was recorded in New Zealand or by New Zealanders, even catalogue that was now in the public domain in New Zealand, digitally, remastered where possible from the original master tapes. The company appointed former EMI NZ Managing Director Chris Caddick to undertake this task.[20] Caddick was in the midst of an earlier reissue programme, under the wing of Recorded Music New Zealand, the New Zealand Music Industry body of which he was the Board Chair, called Tied To The Tracks.[21]
The relatively small size of New Zealand and the fact that most recordings done by New Zealanders in New Zealand have been made after 1949 helped make the programme achievable. That, coupled with the fact that Universal NZ owned the rights to the vast bulk of these recordings up to the 1980s, also gave this historic importance. More than that, it would likely be the first time globally that much of a nation's musical past was available online. That it was driven by the local operating company of a multi-national media corporation made the process even more unique.[20][21]
The programme in New Zealand was supported by, George Ash, President of Universal Music, Australia and New Zealand. Ash, a New Zealander based in Sydney, Australia, also gave Universal NZ access to works recorded in Australia by New Zealanders. A major part of the process was the establishment of a clear chain of ownership especially to the smaller independent labels acquired by Universal NZ's predecessor. This was done by an independent researcher using resources from local government records, private archives and Archives New Zealand. The bulk of the catalogue, this being the albums, was sourced, remastered and digitised by the end of 2019, with new artist contracts signed at contemporary rates and singles not found on the original albums added as bonus tracks. This numbered 393 albums. That left the stray tracks by artists who had never recorded an album. In 2020 Caddick compiled a list of some 19 collections of between 30 and 40 tracks, gathered thematically and began the slow process of clearing and collating these.[20][21]
