SwingDJs

someone told me a lot of these big bands CDs of even the biggest names on the biggest labels don't sell more than a few hundred copies each world wide. How could that be? Why would they even bother?

Hey John,

That's quite true. At XXX there was technically a minimum guarantee of 2,500, but most titles didn't sell anywhere near that. As long as the client was making the bottom line due to certain top titles, we didn't bother them too much about individual guarantees.

The reason none of this stuff gets out through frontline labels is that they'll only produce stuff that they think will sell about 25,000 units.

I hate thinking about all that old record company crap. The industry is over. I had a nice little run before the older audience died and the internet took the interest of younger potential buyers.

Eyeball wrote: I asked a friend of mine about a low sales rumor I had heard from a third party. He was a producer for a major label until recently.

"I had a nice little run before the older audience died and the internet took the interest of younger potential buyers."

How dismal is that??

Haydn wrote: I don't quite understand your point - are you upset that people are buying online instead of buying CDs?

Eyeball wrote:

Haydn wrote: I don't quite understand your point - are you upset that people are buying online instead of buying CDs?

Yes- that is essentially it. An industry has died and a way of marketing that many people devoted their lives to is gone.

Their was pride in being a music retailer with a business that people drove for miles to come to because you had the product and the knowledge and you could meet like minded people in person.

I had a nice little run before the older audience died and the internet took the interest of younger potential buyers.

dogpossum wrote:I'm kinda digging on the fact that I suddenly have access to all sorts of rare music that I couldn't get before.
I also like it that I've 'met' plenty of people from smaller record labels all over the world via email.
I love it that I can learn about music and musicians in conversations with friends all over the country and the world, using resources which are free and easily accessed.
I like it that my entire music collection fits in my backpack, and that it (and I) can ride my bike across town to gigs without breaking my back.
And I like it most of all that I can get a-hold of music immediately.


So I guess you can put me down as 'for' the interwebs.

fredo wrote:

I had a nice little run before the older audience died and the internet took the interest of younger potential buyers.

The thing is, the internet didn't take away interest, new musical preferences did that. The internet actually makes the music we love MORE accessible to younger buyers that might be interested.

fredo wrote:

I agree that it's sad when people have to give up their businesses due to declining market. I think because we're living through this technological shift that these stories can have more sentiment to some of us. I know when Bud's Jazz Records when out of business here in Seattle that many people were bummed.
......

CountBasi wrote:

fredo wrote:

I agree that it's sad when people have to give up their businesses due to declining market. I think because we're living through this technological shift that these stories can have more sentiment to some of us. I know when Bud's Jazz Records when out of business here in Seattle that many people were bummed.
......

Was that the shop you had to go down the steps to from the street very near King St Station (I think it was on Jackson St but not sure????).

Eyeball wrote: Then you totally do not understand what it is that has been lost.
That's just the way it is.

TITLE Music and Film, and the importance of being locally-owned

Locally-owned independent retailers contribute a vast amount to cities. Equally, it's almost impossible to see how national or multinational chains genuinely contribute much to cities at all.

That's not to say that national retailers don't have a place - the Mujis of this world clearly contribute a great deal, economically but also symbolically, as cultural goods. But they don't contribute to cities in the same way.

Exploring numerous cities worldwide leads to an almost instinctive understanding of this, but recent research from the US indicates that between 54 and 58 cents of every dollar spent at a locally-owned retailer stays in that local environment, as they tend to employ a local accountant, a local delivery service, local web designer, local graphic designer and signwriter, local architect, advertise in the local paper, and so on. A national store contributes only 15 cents to the local environment, for every dollar spent, as they tend to centralise those same functions in order to induce greater efficiency. (The research was cited by Stacy Mitchell, author of The Hometown Advantage, on the excellent Smart Cities radio show/podcast, in a show marking the 25th anniversary of Miami's Books & Books store.)