...they don’t seem too interested in releasing a live album anytime soon.
What's the downside? Other than not wanting to over-saturate your market, what other reasons could exist for not wanting to release something - assuming you are proud of it and feel there would be a demand for it, of course.
I think the bolded is mainly the issue. Generally speaking, they don't feel there is a significant enough demand for live recordings right now to justify the cost of mass-producing, distribution....
Right, and I have no understanding of the music industry, but I would have thought a high percentage of the cost of such a recording would be in the recording itself, which in this case is already done. The actual making of a CD and packaging can't cost that much, right?
Yeah, that's a good point. But a couple of things to add:
As far as the cost of pressing a CD, packing, etc., it's not a huge cost in terms of just the materials, which are cheap. But it's not
just the materials. There's more to it than that.
As far as the cost of recording itself, yeah, that is probably a big chunk of it, and could perhaps be the biggest. But let's think for a second about where that cost actually lies. I am guessing here about where the cost for that lies. But if it was done for a tv spot, I think it is likely that the tv channel paid for it. And think about how costs and revenues get spread around when it comes to tv of any kind. The money mostly comes from advertisers who pay for their commercials, right? In simplest terms, a tv station will pay for a given program if they think it is likely to get enough views that advertisers will pay for commercials to be on during that time slot. There are obviously a lot of layers to that. But in any case, the tv station, which is an entity with a lot of revenue and capitol, pays and then holds the rights. They are in a better position to also take the risks associated with whatever programs (as far as not getting enough views of a particular program), because those risks hopefully get spread out. Assuming they were to sell their rights in this recording to DT (which assumes they have the right), the cost would then be passed on to DT, and that might be more than the band are willing to pay. Again, this is all hypothetical. But do you see why it could be an issue from the band's perspective?