Re: [ARSCLIST] Cedar, was: Aren't recordings original sources?

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Bob

On 24/10/08, Bob Olhsson wrote:
> -----Original Message----- From Tom Fine: "...I definitely believe
> that part of the business cratering is due to putting out an
> overpriced, bad quality product in a format that has been
> antiquated..."
> 
> I totally agree about bad quality but strongly disagree with the idea
> that music recordings are overpriced. Factoring in inflation,
> prerecorded music is by far the cheapest it has ever been.
> 
> The problem is what people get for their 15 to 20 bucks which is
> shoddy packaging, horrendous audio quality and too few great
> performances of great material. There is no evidence that lower prices
> will increase sales while everything points to the fact that people
> will gladly pay a premium for any recording they consider worthy of
> purchase. Too many labels and artists got lazy and greedy during the
> CD era. They are now reaping what was sown. Selling the same garbage
> at a lower price is not a solution!
> 
I think people will spend a certain amount on recordings. The price
decides how many hours of music they get for that money.

The horrendous audio quality is IMO mainly confined to pop music, and to
super-budget compilations of material such as 1950s pop. The standard in
classical music is high. The jazz I buy is mainly transfers from analog,
and recent transfers from tape are often better than I have ever heard
(this on material I know well on LP). 

Packaging varies. Naxos manages to provide informative booklets even at
a low retail price (however, they are no longer a super-budget label).
Brilliant Classics have moved toward PDF files on a CD for their
extremely cheap box sets. 

Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx