Why are Ray Charles' ABC-era recordings not on Spotify?

[Newt222]

All of his Atlantic Records work is available and most of his latter-day work can be found here as well. I'd just love to hear "You Don't Know Me," "Unchain My Heart," "Busted," and "Cryin' Time."

[rogums · Accepted solution]

I'm no expert, but perhaps I can help you get a start finding out why.

From researching ABC Records on Wikipedia: "The Ray Charles catalog is controlled by the Charles estate and is currently licensed to Concord Records"

From Ray Charles' official site: "The Ray Charles Foundation owns all his post-Atlantic recordings and they are available for licensing on a worldwide basis."

I guess spotify and the owners just haven't negotiated its precense on the platform yet! You might want to try emailing info@theraycharlesfoundation.org or spotify. 

[Newt222]

Thank ya kindly for the advise, good sir. Here's hoping the foundation gets back with me. I figured it'd help if they knew how much some of us love the Genius' ABC tenure.

[nco]

I was looking for these recordings too. Its a shame they are not on spotify.

Really like songs like 'Wish you were here tonight'.

[Tele-CD]

Sadly, here in Europe you can't even listen to his 70s albums. They're not even available as digital albums at Amazon or elsewhere. They were, but only for a very short time. Certainly, those albums cannot compete with his classic ABC-output, but I always liked albums like Love & Peace, Ain't It So and Brother Ray Is At It Again (which I have on old crackling vinyl). There are complications galore, but the trackless hardly differ.