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Here is label owner Clément Fontaine's official statement that from now on his label will focus on producing music for digital downloads and streaming. So no CDs anymore from Disques Cinémusique::
http://www.disquescinemusique.com/DCM-digital.pdf
What a pity!
But it also shows that nowadays there are probably fewer and fewer collectors around who are willing to buy such older French soundtracks as Sarde's HELLÉ or Garvarentz' LE RAT D'AMÉRIQUE - two of their last CD releases - from such a smaller label.
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I still had some hopes that more Sarde and Jansen scores - some of them never published even on LP - from the CAM/Pema catalogue might be released on CD by them in the near future. But of course this will not be the case anymore.
And which other label might release them on CD?
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Quartet? Music Box?
Yavar
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Perhaps there are legal considerations behind their decision?
Maybe they can sell CDs of what they consider to be "public domain" in Canada, but not here or some other countries.
I don't think that's the real problem here. DCM has moved away from those "public domain" vinyl rips of old US soundtrack LPs from the 50s (mainly Decca) to which you are referring here for more than two years now. Since 2013 they have gone back to releasing mainly French scores from the 60s, 70s and 80s, even from the 90s, on CD, and almost all of them were regularly licensed. For example, scores like Sarde's HELLÉ or Jansen`s LA DENTELLIÈRE were licensed from Gruppo Sugar in Italy because they have the rights for them and all the music material. A few other scores were licensed from record companies in France like Auvidis.
So the problem is really that such older French titles are so hard to sell now on CD that there is no profit to be gained anymore if you add licensing costs, mastering, CD pressing costs etc. DCM has limited these CDs to 500 or even 350 copies - and not even one of these has sold out. So you can imagine how hard it is for such a small label to break even with such scores. That's the current situation. There is not a wide audience for these more "obscure" European things nowadays. And the smaller the label the more difficult it gets to sell such CDs.
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Posted: |
Jul 10, 2015 - 6:22 AM
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By: |
The Thing
(Member)
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I wonder if digital sales have overtaken CD sales for them, or if general sales overall are dwindling to the point where they simply don't want the extra costs of manufacturing and storing CDs.
These obscure scores must surely be catering for such a niche market. Anyone have any thoughts on the age range of likely buyers? How many youngsters are discovering this sort of music? If it's mainly the older age group, and they're not getting replaced by younger collectors, then the market is just going to keep shrinking regardless of the format that the music is released on.
And if it is mainly older collectors, how many of them have gone digital? My dad liked a few of the older French scores (particularly Legrand), but in his 70s was a complete technophobe (and always had been). If he couldn't buy a CD to play, the score might as well not have existed (and he was very late moving from cassette tapes to CDs). Presumably some of these people would be dependent on a younger family member to provide them with the means to get them into a format they could play...
Hopefully the labels get a licence to "own" the score for a lengthy enough time to have it out there somewhere for people to discover it and buy it. I guess that was one of the benefits of having the limited edition release announcements that some of the labels used to do, where they would sell out in a few hours or days. Now that impetus has gone, the urgency for buyers to quickly snap up copies in a mad rush has gone with it. That may have annoyed buyers who found titles had sold out, but presumably the labels made their money in a much shorter timescale?
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I wonder if digital sales have overtaken CD sales for them, or if general sales overall are dwindling to the point where they simply don't want the extra costs of manufacturing and storing CDs.
The reason quite certainly is that they don't want to take the extra costs of manufacturing CDs as general sales have dwindled so much within the last few years. That's a fact for all smaller labels. It is just the same as with GDM in Italy who also don't want to produce CDs anymore expect their Morricone ones because these are the only ones still selling well enough for them. So they now just do that and nothing else anymore. All other, not very well known or more obscure titles from the old Italian RCA catalogue - last year they had limited such CD releases to just 300 units and even those didn't sell out anymore! - are now only released as digital downloads one or two a month by them since January of this year.
However, I can't imagine that there is a really large public for these older scores who want to just download these old titles. Of course, for the label it is much cheaper, but I don't think that therefore the digital sales will improve very much. So it even may be that both GDM and DCM will give up digital sales for such older titles again in 1-2 years. But by then it could be that they will not be replaced by CD releases again, but by nothing at all.
I don't think that there is any large younger audience for example for an old Sarde score from the 70s. Those collectors which are really interested in them will mostly be about 50 years old or even older. In addition, the European cinema has lost so much of its former impact it still had during the 80s so that younger collectors are for the most part only interested in US scores these days. And even with US scores often just those from the 80s onwards. All in all, this is a very difficult matter.
Of course, there may be some exceptions like Morricone or in parts Legrand which still sell well enough, then there are are also a few very popular genres which have their particular fanbase, but there are many other composers and titles which won't sell very well at all.
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Posted: |
Jul 10, 2015 - 6:59 AM
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By: |
The Thing
(Member)
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It's not just the format that the product is being released on, but also the structure of the album itself.
With other types of music (e.g. pop, rock, metal), it's getting more frequent that I keep reading that digital buyers are getting less interested in the album format. Recorded music is selling less and less, and it's the live shows that are bringing in the money for bands. Buyers want a few songs, not entire albums. The art and craft of making a full album just doesn't seem to justify the reducing interest, as buyers are treating everything as being so "throwaway" these days. Lasting value is being replaced by keeping up with the next "big thing" trend. New bands have no way of getting noticed, as festival organisers need guaranteed ticket sales from the same few Big Names each year.
So in a way, the digital format itself is in some way contributing to the general change in listening habits. If bands are struggling to make money from recorded music, what chance do these small labels stand with their niche soundtrack albums. How "invisible" are digital score releases going to become to an already small soundtrack market? Where are the BIG announcements of FANTASTIC new releases which you can buy and own as ... erm,... digital files from iTunes or Amazon, or a stream on Spotify? Even the few PR threads that get started on here for digital-only releases don't generate much discussion.
There was a thread on here not so long ago where someone mentioned that digital files just "disappear" once the licence to sell it on iTunes etc. has run out. That's it... gone... as if it never existed. So if you wanted to buy it, tough, you should have been aware of it at the time.
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From my own experience with the German Alhambra label I can tell you that it makes indeed very much sense to release for example new German scores for current movies as digital downloads (besides the CD version or even as digital download only) because they for the most part also attract a younger audience. And this younger public of course wants to download such digital files, even more so than they want to buy a CD.
However, on the other hand it makes no sense at all to offer our old Lavagnino scores from the 50s or early 60s we have released on CD as digital downloads because they don't attract such a younger audience, but almost only those older collectors who for the most part want to have a CD.
This is the big difference.
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Excellent news (if: lossless).
I love music, but I hate shipping costs.
Au contraire! Very BAD news!
I love most of DCM releases, however today they have lost a loyal purchaser, because I will not buy anything more from them if they do not release physical CDs.
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Posted: |
Jul 10, 2015 - 8:08 AM
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By: |
slint
(Member)
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I'm not so sure about the demographics. Back in the days, the Easy Tempo
collection and Morricone compilations, for instance, were likely targeted to
a younger artsy crowd. I would assume a good fraction of the Giallo and Western
fans, or de Roubaix electronic compilations, are younger people. However, there
is certainly only a small fraction of these people that will collect all scores,
and collectors may tend to be older.
Some labels have successfully gone the digital-way. Many classical labels
for instance offer their full catalog in lossless with great artworks, the
option of buying partial albums, and no restrictions on IP addresses for
purchases. I am perfectly happy with that. Right now, I just think GDM and
DCM have made a poor business decision of dumping their catalog on Itunes.
I refuse to buy such low quality files with no artwork, and there are chances
I could not even buy them due to country restrictions. I'm sure a lot of
collectors will do the same and these new releases might only attract people
when they release best-of Morricone or Legrand compilations. That's also
not a very good way to fight piracy which I'm sure has some impact on
the Italian and French labels as well.
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I'm not so sure about the demographics. Back in the days, the Easy Tempo
collection and Morricone compilations, for instance, were likely targeted to
a younger artsy crowd. I would assume a good fraction of the Giallo and Western
fans, or de Roubaix electronic compilations, are younger people.
That's certainly true for such Italian genre scores which began to attract a lot of younger people during the 90s and also for the lounge, beat and psychedelic music of the late 60s/early 70s. But has DCM ever released many scores in this vein? Not as far as I can see. The ones they released for the most part did not really attract a younger audience, but they have put out more classically oriented French scores (without talking about the old US scores with the Decca vinyl rips) which tend to appeal to another and probably also smaller group of rather older European collectors.
Also those Lavagnino scores we have released on Alhambra for example certainly don't appeal very much to that younger target group you mention above.
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Posted: |
Jul 10, 2015 - 10:03 AM
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By: |
The Thing
(Member)
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Well The Thing I think just speaking from my favorite artists, the album is doing great. Most of my favorite metal bands are constantly putting out solid albums not just a few good songs.
I agree with you, I wasn't denying the quality of their output.
But from other sources that I read (e.g. Blabbermouth website, Classic Rock magazine), I'm seeing the artists themselves bemoaning that punters aren't so interested in the album format. They're talking about releasing more frequent EP's, rather than saving up all their songs for a full album once every (say) 2 years.
Today's kids are digital listeners and want to listen to a few songs, mix 'n' match playlists, re-sequence albums, drop songs they don't like, then quickly move on to the next thing. Everything is too throwaway these days. The "art" of the album is wasted on the youth of today. Album sales in the multi-millions aren't really happening much now; the big numbers seem to just be in the hundreds of thousands nowadays. Online listening via sites like Spotify cut into a big chunk of sales, and artists get paid a pittance in return.
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Excellent news (if: lossless).
I love music, but I hate shipping costs.
Au contraire! Very BAD news!
I love most of DCM releases, however today they have lost a loyal purchaser, because I will not buy anything more from them if they do not release physical CDs.
Well, your loss. I have no need for the plastic or the paper. Just the music will do fine. And I am not in the minority. Face it, cd's for these albums don't sell well enough to maintain the production.
Well, good for you then! Of course, you are right that these albums don't sell well enough to maintain its production. But being something so limited is precisely what makes them special, otherwise they are just another one in the crowd.
There is a difference between a "listener" and a "collector". Obviously, the person who listen music on tiny headphones in the subway is different from the person who enjoy having a booklet in his hands while listening on speakers at home.
Hopefully, there are other labels who target on collectors (the minority as you call it). This has been discussed several times on this board.
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Posted: |
Jul 10, 2015 - 10:26 AM
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By: |
slint
(Member)
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I hate this fallacy, I really do. It's condescending. I listen to my non-physically bought music on well equipped audio set at home or on top-level Bowers & Wilkins P7 headphones.
And I think that the music makes it special, not the way it's released.
That's a fair enough and I would have to agree. But if you tried to force us to listen to compressed music with no artwork, etc, that would also be condescending, and that's what some labels, and especially some big music companies, are trying to do.
batman&robin: Would you feel the same if the music was released in CD quality download with full artwork? Personally, this would be just fine for me, even if the price is the same as the CD (I save on shipping, the label saves on production).
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