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| This is a comments thread about Blog Post: Seriously, Are There Too Many CDs? by Lukas Kendall |
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Mr. Kendall, thanks for your candour, and for soliciting our feedback.
For whatever reason, it seems like FSM seems to come out on the short end of the stick. Titles rarely sell out, and (per the 3000 limit run) collectors seem to generally place them at the back of their list in order to keep their Intrada collections complete, and to purchase other more limited items.
It also seems to be that older titles don't sell nearly as well. I think you're totally justified in cutting off slow sellers and getting rid of your existing stock. Hopefully at that point, you could start over. One idea I thought of involved locking down certain titles and then consulting the purchasing public on what we'd like to see released. Not sure how feasible that is though.
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Posted: |
Nov 1, 2010 - 3:43 PM
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By: |
Sarge
(Member)
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A combination of both seems like a good compromise. 2000 or 1500 physical CDs and a digital download released concurrently.
And if physical CD sales trail off to a point where it will obviously never sell out, announce that once your current stock is depleted no more will be manufactured.
Not only would it cut down on manufacturing expenses and unsold stock sitting around for years, it'd curb certain people from carping about prices and shipping. Downloading would be less expensive, and shipping wouldn't be a factor.
In the case of a box set, like the TNG box, you could even ship people a data disc with the files on it since downloading would be a nightmare.
And people will probably hate me for suggesting this, but if FSM reduces the number of physical CDs it's producing, I see no reason why the price shouldn't kick up five bucks. At that point, it becomes a very limited edition.
At the end of the day, Lukas - whatever approach keeps you in business I support wholeheartedly.
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I think you must do what is best for your business. I, for one, have never put off buying an FSM title. I appreciate them all...most especially the Golden Age titles.
I think pressing fewer than 3,000 titles is an excellent way to go as it seems you can offer virtually any title and, after whatever period of time you select, announce it as out of stock.
I am not a fan of iTunes downloads, but if it's coming, then so be it. I have plenty of CDs to listen to for the rest of my life...but there is always "just one more" score I look forward to getting my hands on. Hope those kinds of scores still keep coming from FSM.
Ron Pulliam
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Posted: |
Nov 1, 2010 - 3:57 PM
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By: |
Chris Avis
(Member)
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Lukas,
Thank you for soliciting our feedback. From my perspective, yes, there are too many CDs being released by all the specialty labels at the moment. It's been wonderful on the one hand to get so many scores that I'd never dared hope would be released / expanded, but the pace of releases is such that I can only just afford to buy what I know I'll like. In earlier years, I'd often experiment with scores and artists that I was unfamiliar with, but given the sheer volume of "must haves" releases for me, I've almost entirely cut out these trial buys.
I also worry about the long-term longevity of the labels. There are only so many big holy grail releases that generate a lot of revenue for you guys and it seems like they're all coming out within a few years of one another - it wouldn't hurt to space them out more. It would also help to return the soundtrack hobby back towards appreciating music and away from collecting bottlecaps like crazy.
If you want to continue releasing CDs at the same pace, one suggestion would be to mix in premier CD releases with re-releases of popular OOP titles, as La la land and Intrada have done. This would have the benefit of generating some immediate revenue for you as well as allowing fans to get those hard to find titles without resorting to eBay scalpers.
As for the CDs vs. digital downloads issue, I am very firmly in favor of CD releases, and will continue to preferentially support FSM, Intrada, La la land, Kritzerland and all the other labels that release scores on physical media over other distributors that release digital downloads.
I am incredibly grateful to all of the labels for their hard work and support over the past few years and I really appreciate your openness in soliciting our feedback.
All the best,
Chris.
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Why not do what Warner Archives and others are doing for DVD orders? Offer a hard copy CDR of a score on an order by order basis. Or the option to choose download over hard copy.
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Yes of course there are too many CDs being released - so many that I wonder where the labels' revenue is going to come from in coming years even if the CD doesn't die out.
If, the labels and FSM offer their titles digitally why does it have to be through iTunes - could you not just offer the digital download through your site directly cutting out the middle man - surely meaning more money for FSM. I remember buying the 24 - The Game soundtrack directly from the Fox website - no need to go through iTunes.
If you do ever offer your titles digitally could you please have some consideration for us UK soundtrack fans. It annoys me when a title is available on the American version of iTunes but not on the UK version - a BIG issue that needs to be addressed if you are hoping to minimise the impact of the pirates. I would have purchased the Black Hole on iTunes but it was not available in the UK iTunes store when I went to purchase it.
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I think clarity is always good - it's not the labels that will be offering the digital downloads, it's the studios - the labels will get no revenue from it.
Many here will recall my call to arms one year ago, when I saw the glut that was beginning to happen. Finally, everyone is now understanding what I was talking about, and I hope it's not too late. I asked for a summit meeting of the labels a year ago (these posts are all here on the FSM board, and there have been quite a few of them from me over the last year), which no one seemed interested in doing. Well, here we are.
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Yes of course there are too many CDs being released - so many that I wonder where the labels' revenue is going to come from in coming years even if the CD doesn't die out.
If, the labels and FSM offer their titles digitally why does it have to be through iTunes - could you not just offer the digital download through your site directly cutting out the middle man - surely meaning more money for FSM. I remember buying the 24 - The Game soundtrack directly from the Fox website - no need to go through iTunes.
If you do ever offer your titles digitally could you please have some consideration for us UK soundtrack fans. It annoys me when a title is available on the American version of iTunes but not on the UK version - a BIG issue that needs to be addressed if you are hoping to minimise the impact of the pirates. I would have purchased the Black Hole on iTunes but it was not available in the UK iTunes store when I went to purchase it.
Okay, if the studios do offer downloads they need to make them available for all fans - regardless of where they live on the planet.
I fear that some titles will only be available for download in the US - and if that happens piracy will be the only option for some to hear some future titles. DVD and Blu rays are released on the same day for some titles in the USA and UK in an effort to minimise piracy. The labels and/or studios will need to ensure something similar happens if they go down the digital road.
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I think what needs to be done is to do it like "normal" CDs -- announce a title, but DON'T say how many copies it's limited to. Press more when you need to. I think more of the problem is the need to buy 'right now' because it might sell out by tomorrow.
Actually it's really other labels that ought to do this, and it'd probably help FSM even if they (FSM) didn't -- I think THAT is really what FSM's sales are slow, the other labels are releasing all these 1000 and 1200 edition discs, that everyone is buying all those. If EVERYONE released, say, 2500 discs (even if they actually don't press that many for quite a while) I think sales would be more even across the board, less people would pay too much for OOP stuff, and more titles would be allowed to be in the catalog for longer.
But I'm not an economist.
No, you're not. The licensing fee, as has been stated here many times, escalates a LOT for 2500 units. And at the escalated price and given the fact that few titles sell 2500 units, the label loses money. At 1000 units, a sellout means there is a small, finite amount of money to be made. And I'm here to tell you that the more these 1000 unit runs DON'T sell out the faster the labels will stop releasing certain titles altogether.
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I don't follow baseball, but I think I read something somewhere about stadiums getting wise to the fact that the fewer seats they made available, the more fans clamored to buy a ticket. Making a CD a truly limited edition of 1000 units or less might stimulate sales.
Personally, I don't buy soundtracks from iTunes; I'll buy rock from them, but not soundtracks. Soundtracks, to me, are like books. There's something about the physicality of them. I like having a CD on my shelf. And I like the booklets that come with them. I may be in the minority, but I'd pay more for a special edition if it comes with little extras like that.
By the way, Lukas is to be commended for making the Star Trek III 2-CD set so affordable.
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What would people think about us converting 3000-unit limited editions into 5000, 8000 or 10000-copy editions?
Lukas
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