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Re: [ARSCLIST] Folkways Reissues
The only Folkways product I own,are some of their collections of prewar blues,that they pressed in the 60s and early 70s.back when old Moses was still running the show.There is no mention on the site,that they put out such a low-budget product.This was somewhat of a shock to me.Is this a web-only thing,or if somebody went to a Smithsonian gift shop,and bought a CD,would they get a similarly packaged product ?
No,Garr is right here.I think this is waay too much to pay for the product you receive.Government entities,and private non-profits,are both notorious for charging people far more money than they ought to.Charging somebody $21.95 ,for "The 12-String Guitar as Played by Lead Belly",a title that has been available,for almost fifty years,is IMHO,no better than Habitat for Humanity, who use donated labor,and materials,charging the poor people who buy their homes $175,000.00,and up.
How much of the cost of a $21.95 CD is going towards administrative salaries, and how much is actually going to keep The Smithsonian open ?
Just as mom and pop grocery stores have had to bring their prices down,to compete with Wally World,so too should online retailers,who are not selling a unique product,bring their prices down to the eBay/Amazon level.Perhaps they might find selling more product at a lower price,might make them more money, than selling fewer CDs at higher prices.
One more piece of advice should somebody at The Smithsoninian actually be reading this.Ditch the cassettes,and sell downloads instead.
Roger
Garr Norick <big_garr_2002@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: Don't get me wrong... please understand that I admire what Folkways is doing, and it is something that needs to be done... Maybe this illustration will show me what I mean... I have a private collection of music... I have been collecting for 20 years, and I am 23 years old... Say someone wanted a CD dub of a recording in my collection... I could transfer it onto CD and xerox the liner notes for them, and this would cost me at most one dollar. I could charge them five dollars for the whole thing, plus shipping, and make a 500% profit... Smithsonian, a government entity, owns the rights to all these masters outright... they probably buy blank CDs, labels, and paper for insert materials in massive quantities... thereby saving money... in other words, they probably don't have considerable overhead aside from paying someone to do these transfers (which, understanding the importance of keeping this music alive, would gladly do for them
free of charge)... what I am trying to say
is, all things considered, considering that they own the masters and probably get the raw materials at or below wholesale pricing, they could easily charge $10 a CD and make a nice profit on it (and it probably costs them less to make a custom CD than it does me, because I buy my supplies in retail quantities at retail prices). I guess part of my point of view is that I am a collector who has always been on a shoestring budget. I sincerely hope I did not offend anyone.
Most Sincerely Yours,
G.E.
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