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Posted: |
Feb 27, 2017 - 7:08 AM
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By: |
Johnny
(Member)
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Hi all! Recently in the "La-La Land/MV Questions thread", LLL's MV Gerhard regretted to announce that slow sales of DC Comics titles had discouraged the company from moving forward on their once-planned releases for JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED, TEEN TITANS, and SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, all scored by Michael McCuistion, Kris Carter, and Lolita Ritmanis (the latter of the three also having been scored by Shirley Walker and Harvey Cohen).
However, Gerhard offered: "If you can find me 1,000 customers who would be willing to purchase JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED, SUPERMAN vol. 2, and TEEN TITANS, we would be more than happy to release those soundtracks."
So, that's what this is! There are three petitions I've set up so that we can have a real number on how many people would seriously be interested in purchasing these soundtracks. 'Why three instead of one big petition?', you ask. Because if I set up just one, it would be too easy for the 1000 signatures to be accrued by people saying, 'Well, I don't care about that Teen Titans thing, but I want another Superman!' Results would be a bit nebulous and uncertain as to where the demand really lies.
So:
(links removed; never mind it!)
Hopefully this doesn't come off as me pointing the finger at LLL in a bad way - I'm just trying to use the petition format as a way of keeping track of numbers easily. To signers, I ask that you only do so if you seriously are interested in this music; there's nothing to be gained by having a bunch of frivolous signatures from people who only want to bump the number up and not intend to actually buy any of the sets.
(Additionally - the way the site works is that each time someone signs, an email is auto-generated into the inbox of the person being petitioned. I deliberately did not input LLL's email address into any fields in the set-up, so hopefully this shouldn't actually happen.)
And please - don't hesitate to share the links with other people you know who would be interested in purchasing any of the above! Every signature counts!
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Guys, if you want more then have people buy the ones we have already produced so we can at least break even on them. Worry about new ones in the future.
Besides, asking folks if they are interested in something as opposed to them buying it are two different things. When we asked people about the Trek TOS set we had 12k people saying they would buy it. We did 6000 units, but have sold less than 4k.
MV
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I'm a fan of this music, and would buy any of these potential release quite happily. But I'm not going to add my name to a petition. I hope it is helpful to read one fan explain why.
A petition is not an indicator of potential sales. A petition requires nothing but an instant of participation, and it is just not predictive from a business standpoint. If 5,000 people signed it, that does not mean that 5,000 or even 1,000 people would buy the release.
If you want to ensure that LLL releases more DC animated music besides Batman, which does sell, then there is only one way to convince them - get more people to buy what has been released already. I don't know how to do that any better than LLL has, but it's the only persuasive indicator of possible future sales. Why would a sensible business release a volume 2 or a follow-up release when the first one hasn't sold enough?
EDIT: Hilariously enough, while I was carefully crafting this response, MV came in and said it much better, much simpler, and with authority! 
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Posted: |
Feb 27, 2017 - 10:21 AM
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By: |
Wedge
(Member)
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Guys, if you want more then have people buy the ones we have already produced so we can at least break even on them. Worry about new ones in the future.
This, this, this.
What helps isn't petitions, it's sales and evangelism. Take SUPERMAN. If everyone who bought BATMAN TAS bought SUPERMAN TAS, you would have more SUPERMAN TAS. And trust me, we really WANT to give you more SUPERMAN. (I'd go so far as to say it's the project we haven't done that frustrates me most, because I virtually produced Vol. 2 in my mind alongside the first -- and because the music is beyond incredible!) But an online petition or survey isn't the way to go about it ... at best it won't translate into sales, and at worst it will give a negative impression.
Want to improve the odds of more SUPERMAN (for example) in the future? If you don't have the existing set yet, buy it. You will love it. If you have bought it, find some open-minded friends who may not be familiar with it and GET them familiar with it. Venture out to forums and fan sites where there aren't already threads for this stuff, where the specialty record labels aren't on the radar. People can't support a product if they don't know it exists. Encourage people to watch the show -- it's free to view with Amazon Prime -- and listen to the music. Stay positive and enthusiastic; you want to share the love, and it won't help your cause to come across as desperate (a headline like "Save the music!" feels a bit like you're asking people to bail out your sinking ship, which won't motivate people who don't already love the thing you want them to save). Rinse and repeat for whatever else you'd like to see more of. It's the only way.
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Take SUPERMAN. If everyone who bought BATMAN TAS bought SUPERMAN TAS, you would have more SUPERMAN TAS. And trust me, we really WANT to give you more SUPERMAN. (I'd go so far as to say it's the project we haven't done that frustrates me most, because I virtually produced Vol. 2 in my mind alongside the first -- and because the music is beyond incredible!)
This is what breaks my heart. I'm astonished that just among the throngs of film score fans here there have not been enough people to purchase music as good as anything released in the 1990's - which this is. The samples tell the story, even if the subject and the animation do not draw attention.
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Given, just for example, that MV said He-Man was one of their real successes, I think it is absolutely interest as the primary factor, although economics and changing music habits are of course factors as well.
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Posted: |
Feb 27, 2017 - 12:23 PM
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By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
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There are obviously many factors, and I don't doubt that the economy contributes. As does illegal downloading. (How many of those 12,000 people who said they wanted "Star Trek" were content to simply take the music?)
But I would also say that even for people to whom spending money is infinite, time is not. How many four-CD sets can people reasonably take the time to actually enjoy (rather than simply own)? And for shows and movies they've never seen? I'm not saying the animated "Superman" scores are not worthy, but the show was never the hit the "Batman" show was (there were about 60% more episodes of the latter than the former), and if you take as a given that people can't buy everything, they gravitate toward what they know.
Think about television these days. People with cable and streaming have an array of programs they could spend their entire lives devouring even if another episode was never made. If you have Netflix, it doesn't cost a cent more to watch "Orange Is The New Black" and "House of Cards" and "Stranger Things" and "Bloodline" and "Daredevil" (etc.) than it does to just watch one of them. Yet I find that people are relieved when they drop a show, because they've tired of it or because it ends. It's not a cost thing, it's a time thing.
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I say this over and over again. I think it's the economy not a lack of interest. People just can't afford to buy as many soundtracks as they used to. Much less take a chance on a score they never heard before. I would love to see more animated scores and hopefully things will change in the future where that can happen.
If you have a title people want they will buy it. If the economy is so awful how come our 4th quarter sales were the best we have posted in our 15 year history? Reason: Titles people wanted.
No one loves releasing the DC Animated titles as much as I do, but when we can't even move 500 units of Justice League TAS, then its not the economy, it's the customer base. They simply didn't want it.
MV
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What helps isn't petitions, it's sales and evangelism. Take SUPERMAN. If everyone who bought BATMAN TAS bought SUPERMAN TAS, you would have more SUPERMAN TAS. And trust me, we really WANT to give you more SUPERMAN. (I'd go so far as to say it's the project we haven't done that frustrates me most, because I virtually produced Vol. 2 in my mind alongside the first -- and because the music is beyond incredible!)
I'm genuinely surprised Superman TAS was a disappointment. The music is every bit as good as anything else you could find on television (and a helluva lot better than anything you could find in current comic book films).
This is very weird news to my ears / eyes.
Barely moved 1000 units after 3 years. Sad, but true
MV
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