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The following are just some of the costs to us that have increased. I am not referring to the musician fees because thankfully the historic rates have made these albums actually possible now. And I am not counting postage fees as those we factor into our retail shipping rates. Anyway, onwards.

Here's what costs have increased since our first $19.99 CD went out our door: The advances to acquire the license. The royalty rates to the studio. The mechanical licensing fees. (Yes, every time we add another track to an album, not only do we pay a higher rate, but we pay that rate so many more times over, too.) The costs of transferring the original elements. The costs of mixing, editing and mastering the music. The costs of licensing the artwork and stills for the packaging. The costs of manufacturing a disc. The costs of printing a booklet. And - of course - the labor costs at all levels of production and manufacturing and filling of orders and all that overhead stuff. And my point here?

Some 25 years later, we still retail these discs for $19.99

Just something to ponder. Don't fear a price increase or some other yucky development at this time. But maybe, just maybe, be kind of happy that you are seeing these albums come out against such challenging odds. It gets pretty crazy sometimes.
--Doug

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Economics 101:

Project costs $10,000 to produce. You sell cd at an average of $7 per unit. For a release like this, one that is months after the fact, you might be lucky to move 1000 to 2000 units. If you move 2000, you make $14,000 gross. Of course, when you factor in royalties you might walk away with $2,500 - $3,000 profit. Now, this is not accounting for the 1000 cds you will most likely receive as returns a year later from vendors like Tower, Virgin, etc. . . So, you have actually lost money on the project.

Perhaps some day another company will release it as a limited edition cd if Mr Despalt's star continues to rise. Hell, in a few years I might even do that! I'm a fan of his work, but to release the cd now is hardly worth it to appease a few hundred people.

Now, if I can get a slew of you to want a release of this, I might second think the project. This is similiar to Blade:Trinity. We were considering doing it, but there wasn't enough interest, so we passed.


MV

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I can't speak for others, but when you get right down to it $20 is just about as low as we can go.

Between artist royalties, mechanical royalties, afm fees, sag fees (for choir), transfer costs, mastering costs, producing costs as well as manufacturing costs a company's out of pocket fees go well into the 10's of thousands on some projects. Other projects, are not as high, but those ones usually are not as much in demand.

We try to give customers a break from time to time (sale prices on older titles or sale prices on new ones -- like now: Buy Dragonslayer and get Eraser for $14.98).

Plus, something to also keep in mind is when we sell these cds to other stores we sell them at a wholesale rate, so our profit diminishes anywhere from $5 to $10. Only Varese has the cajones to sell their wares at full retail price to the wholesale marketplace. LOL

Believe me, if we could sell these cds cheaper and still make a good profit we would.

And that's all I gotta say about that.

MV

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