LISTSERV mailing list manager LISTSERV 16.0

Help for ARSCLIST Archives


ARSCLIST Archives

ARSCLIST Archives


[email protected]


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

ARSCLIST Home

ARSCLIST Home

ARSCLIST  September 2014

ARSCLIST September 2014

Subject:

Re: Records Ruin the Landscape

From:

DAVID BURNHAM <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

DAVID BURNHAM <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Thu, 25 Sep 2014 12:25:43 -0700

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (95 lines)

Hi Tom

Decca/London called theirs "Double Decker" and DGG called theirs "Compact Classics".

db


On Thursday, September 25, 2014 2:58 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 


Hi Don:

Eloquence comes out of the Australia division. There is some economic reason why they can still do 
single discs. I suspect it's some sweetheart deal on manufacturing costs. It may also be that a UMG 
administrative or marketing employee also has the skills to grab digital files out of their 
worldwide storage system and author CDs. There also may be some currency-exchange reason. I'm not 
privvy to the particulars but only the Australia division has been able to do that. UMG Classics 
"central office" in London, and the US division, also the Asian divisions, don't do single CDs of 
back-catalog anymore. In fact, the discount-priced many-CD box originated in Asia (Korea to be 
exact, for UMG at least) and was then enthusiastically adopted by the Europe and US divisions. I 
believe the same thing happened with Sony -- for instance the big box of RCA Living Stereo CD layers 
originated from their Korea unit. The reason is probably obvious -- very low manufacturing costs at 
Asian plants and a buying public desiring low-per-disc costs. It's a good business model.

Going back to the early 90s, the Philips and Decca units of Polygram opted to reissue large chunks 
of their back catalog as discounted 2CD sets with what I consider cheap-looking minimal packaging, 
but often quite acceptable remastering. Philps was called "Duo" and I forgot what Decca was called 
(sold under the London brand in the US for a long time). In both cases, there was no attempt made to 
highlight original album art or liner notes, and only minimal technical information given. Philips 
did make it a point to note when they used their Bitstream transfer system (ie they used a dCS 1-bit 
converter). In my opinion, both companies totally under-sold their back catalog, probably because 
they had massively expensive contracts with currently-recording conductors and opera singers and 
thus wanted to sell as many premium-priced new releases as they could. At Polygram and then UMG, the 
Decca, Philips and DGG back-catalog finally received some nice packaging and better remasters in the 
mid and late 90s with the "Originals" series. Given that some of those Decca Originals titles got 
extra mileage as included in the many-CD box sets (finally with original cover art) and as HDTracks 
downloads, that was remastering money well spent. Some of the DGG titles in their parallel late 90's 
series have also ended up as 96/24 downloads on HDTracks.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Cox" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 3:34 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Records Ruin the Landscape


> On 25/09/2014, Tom Fine wrote:
>
>
>>
>> There are other classical recordings that fall into this niche. I've
>> been told by classical folks at both UMG and Sony that almost no
>> back-catalog titles can be reissued as single CDs anymore because they
>> never recoup the production and manufacturing costs. So if it can't be
>> fit into a box set, it likely won't be in print on CD.
>
> Universal issue a steady stream of single-disc or 2-disc reissues in
> their Eloquence series.
>
>> And, there's a
>> large quantity of material issued on CD in the 80s and 90s now out of
>> print and likely not economically viable to be remastered for HD
>> reissue. All of that material fits the niche for CD-resolution
>> downloads. I'd like to see them at most line-priced with rock and jazz
>> reissue CDs today, about $8 per disc of music. At that price, I think
>> profits can be made all around (especially since the production costs
>> were years ago and theoretically were recouped in the now-sold-out CD
>> inventory). I was hoping ArkivMusic would get into this area, because
>> they tried burn-on-demand CDs (which don't sell well, I note that
>> Amazon has backed off that idea too). I'm also surprised that iTunes
>> still doesn't sell lossless CD-resolution files. My bet is, it has to
>> do with their initial agreements with the record companies ("you can't
>> sell something as good as our CDs or we'll never get rid of this
>> inventory on our books!"). Times are different now.
>>
>> I'm very much interested in hearing Sanderling's version of Brahms,
>> but not $75 interested (price for a new copy of the CDs) or $25
>> interested for lossy MP3 (Amazon price). iTunes seems to only have the
>> Brahms 4th by Sanderling/Dresden, and only available in Europe, in
>> lossy format, for 10 euros. Pass! I'd pay the $25, out of curiosity,
>> for non-lossy downloads, especially if a PDF was included that told me
>> recording details.
>>
> I would be very very reluctant to pay for files with lossy compression.
>
> Regards
> -- 
> Don Cox
> [log in to unmask]
>
> 

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

Advanced Options


Options

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password


Search Archives

Search Archives


Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe


Archives

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003

ATOM RSS1 RSS2



LISTSERV.LOC.GOV

CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager