Andy Gibb

[hansenkd]

Andy Gibb's catalog has suddenly vanished.  This is strange, as Andy is long dead.  One would think that his affairs would be managed by Barry Gibb, the last surviving Gibb brother.  All of the Bee Gees catalog is still available.  Did something lapse and somebody forgot to renew the rights to Andy's catalog?  Surely he can't have too many objections from the grave, and I can't imagine that Barry or anybody else connected to the late youngest Gibb would have pulled it for any conceivable reason.

Any way somebody can look into this?  It appears to be kind of recent.

[hansenkd]

I did a little more research into this.  Apparently this has something to do with the deal that Barry Gibb signed with Capitol (which is under the UMG umbrella).  This was apparently done in conjunction with the estates of Robin and Maurice Gibb as well.  I wonder if anybody was thinking what the effect from this deal would be on Andy and his catalog, since he was not an "official" Bee Gee.

It looks as if, after Capitol obtained the rights, that the deluxe editions of four Bee Gees albums produced by Warner were removed from all digital platforms (not just Spotify, but also Apple, both iTunes and streaming, and Amazon).  At the same time, Andy Gibb's albums vanished, again everywhere.  You can't get them on iTunes anymore either.  Now, Capitol has got the entire Bee Gees catalog up everywhere, reverting to the originals of the ones where Warner produced the now unavailable deluxe editions.  My guess is that Barry and Capitol weren't even considering the fate of Andy's albums.  It appears that they weren't included in the deal, or if they were, it's nebulous.  At any rate, once Barry dumped Warner, that label extended its removal to Andy's catalog as well.

It would be really nice to know if Capitol is even aware of the fate of Andy's catalog or even if they have the rights to it.  It looks suspiciously like this was something that was overlooked by Barry when he made the deal.  This is an unfortunate situation of something just falling through the cracks.  Sadly, there is no real way to contact anybody at UMG or Capitol to ask what is going on here.  Obviously Warner was piqued and removed anything with the Gibb name.  The Bee Gees official website and Facebook page don't have good options for questions or inquiries.  It looks to me like Barry just had some sort of brain fart on what would happen to his youngest brother's music.

Because contacting anybody about this as a mere consumer seems virtually impossible, I wonder if Spotify could take some initiative and ask Capitol what the heck is going on with Andy's catalog or if they have even thought about it.  He was a major artist of the late 1970s and even the early 1980s, maybe not as popular as his brothers, but he was big.  For all of his albums to just be gone, not just on Spotify, but everywhere, is something that should be noticed and dealt with, even if it means somehow contacting Barry Gibb himself.  This isn't a case of an artist not wanting their stuff available.  Andy is obviously dead, and I can't imagine that Barry actually wants Andy's stuff to be unavailable.  If he simply forgot about dealing with it when making the Capitol deal, then he and the labels need to fix it.  If Warner still holds the rights to Andy's catalog, that might be very awkward, but really something needs to be done, and Spotify itself needs to take some initiative here (along with the other services), since this really seems like an unfortunate oversight.

[hansenkd]

OK, a little more research reveals that it is not Barry Gibb who is responsible for curating and licensing Andy's catalog, but rather Andy's own daughter Peta Gibb, who lives in Australia and doesn't seem to have much contact with Barry.  In order to get Andy's material back up, somebody probably needs to get in contact with Peta.  I wonder if she was even aware when Warner removed her father's material, or if she was involved.  At any rate, my "fell through the cracks" suspicion seems to be accurate.

[Rhall427]

I'm glad you made this thread, I was curious what happened all of a sudden!

[candygirl777]

Wow I had no idea about all this & just stumbled onto your thread!  Thanks for posting, maybe there's a way for us fans to message Peta?  Or start a petition?  There has to be something we can do!  Please keep me posted!!  

[idkwhy]

It happened January 4th. I just so happened to be listening to his songs the day before and the next day they were gone. Even decades after his death, his music is timeless, and fans still listen. I wish whoever pulled them thought this through. I am really glad that someone is mentioning it because I tried to find information about it earlier and couldn't find anything.

What can we do...? I don't think there is much we can do. But if you guys have a petition going around, let me in on it so I can sign. Probably won't do much but it's worth a shot.

Edit: the album "Horizontal" by Bee Gees also virtually went bye bye when Andy Gibb's catalog did. I noticed because Massachusetts by Bee Gees is close by Andy Gibb's songs on my playlist and they went unavailable at the same time. Not all Bee Gees songs, just a few from Horizontal it seemed. Interesting thing though, most of the Horizontal songs were added back.

Really hoping a Spotify rep can release a statement on what's going on...

[KeishaMK]

I too noticed this. His music used to be available on apple music and itunes as well and no longer is. He died in 1988 so I can't imagine it has anything to do with his objections. The BeeGees are still on apple music and itunes as well so I can't imagine Barry Gibb made this request. Also I looked him up on Amazon so I could just buy his CDs and they are going for $50-$150 a piece. It's like his music was removed to jack up the price of his CDs. Not a good way to honour the memory of a lost artist 😞

[KeishaMK]

I just found out that the BeeGees boxed set "Mythology" is a 4 disc collection with one disc for each brother including Andy. So that's one way to get Andy Gibb's music without it being super jacked up in price. I just bought the set for $30 plus shipping.

[aidalailama]

Andy was big! I want you be your everything become the number 1 hit from Cassey Kasem's American Top 40s year-end count down from 1977.

I'm in the process of creating playlists for every year's countdowns, it's actually showing on my playlist from that year, but unable to play.

On one of our "remember that song" sessions with one of my closest friends I told him that I had that song on one of my playlists and that's how we realized Andy's catalog had vanished.

I own a couple of Andy's CD collections I bought over 20 years ago on Columbia House, but those are useless for the purpose of my playlists.

I just hope that the tracks won't be removed from the playlist in hopes that in the future his catalog will be available on Spotify again.

[Dkgrandma]

I'm so upset about my Andy Gibb songs being gone. I LOVED hearing his songs very much. I cancelled my SPOTIFY membership. I hope we ANDY GIBB FANS can be able to get his songs back. If SPOTIFY does. I'll renew my subcription.

[yopo618]

Bring Andy back!! 😐😐😐

[hansenkd · Accepted solution]

It appears that Andy Gibb is back as of today.  It looks like the catalog has now been licensed too UMG/Capitol, just like the Bee Gees with their new deal.  Why Andy couldn't have just been included with that deal to avoid a 6-month absence from the digital platforms is anyone's guess.  But as of today, Andy Gibb is back.  Better late than never.

[idkwhy]

**bleep** **bleep** **bleep**. I was JUST looking at his Spotify page just a few days ago!! Yay!!! So happy!! Thank you for posting that!!