It's no longer a snarky term to throw at indie bands that sign to a major label. Right now, "sellout" makes this author think of The Complete Elvis Presley Masters, Legacy's massive 30-disc box set devoted to The King of Rock and Roll. Several days ago, it was confirmed to have sold all 1,000 copies - a monumental achievement, if not a surprising one.
Readers, we've seen a growing number of limited sets finding their way into our collective catalogue consciousness. The soundtrack world has been dealing in this kind of release format for years; Intrada, Varese Sarabande, Film Score Monthly, La La Land, Kritzerland and the other soundtrack specialty labels have built a collective empire on limited releases, and they sure can sell. Intrada's late summer reissue of Predator sold out within a few days of its release, while their CD pressing of the soundtrack to Space Camp disappeared within its first day of availability. That's some 6,000 units selling at a rapid-fire pace. In the rock world, The Beatles' mono box set was rumored to be limited, which contributed to its brisk sales (12,000 copies in its first week); of course, it's since gone platinum, so you can throw that limited idea out the window.
But the increasing niche presence of reissues mean there are a lot of titles that will get licensed in smaller quantities (usually under five figures) and may never be pressed again. The fiefdom of iTunes makes digital distribution of these titles often improbable. So as encouraging as it is to see something like The Complete Elvis Presley Masters sell out - proving, to a large degree, that great catalogue material still endures regardless of business, cultural and economic conditions (an idea The Second Disc will support as long as humanly possible) - you have to fear the possibility that the concept of limited editions that sell quickly will undermine the idea of music being enjoyed by everyone.
Let's face it, the average person has an increasingly weak assessment of catalogue music in the first place. The cherry-picking of tunes from their respective albums have stagnated album sales, and retailers are reluctant to carry anything but the most surefire catalogue material. (To name one store, Target stores in New Jersey only carried four of the newly remastered John Lennon titles - Imagine, Double Fantasy, Milk and Honey and the new Power to the People compilation - while they carried every Beatles remaster.) And only the most resourceful buyers (past or present) will be diligent in looking for hard-to-find or possibly out-of-print works. Those are the folks that keep reissue label groups alive, from Legacy, Hip-o Select and Rhino to Intrada, Funky Town Grooves and Ace.
Now, what about those raised on iTunes and downloading, but who might want to dip a toe into deeper catalogue waters? What options are there if the business has gotten to the point that only limited edition reissues can succeed? Intrada doesn't have their catalogue on iTunes, for one reason or another, meaning that a new fan of, say, Back to the Future (someone who makes the head-spinning decision to discover the trilogy in 2015, say) might never have a chance to own the musical score Intrada released - the same one fans craved for nearly 25 years prior to its release. That's a sad situation, when one thinks about it, but it could become commonplace should things continue their slide on the catalogue side.
What I ask you, the thoughtful and intelligent reader, is this: what do limited titles - particularly the quick sellers - say about reissues in general? Are they helping or hurting the state of catalogue affairs, in the long run? Our thoughts and opinions could someday birth a solution, so feel free to sound off in the comments below.
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I continue to feel that the greatest enemy to record sales in general is iTunes and downloading. As you noted, people just pick and choose songs now rather than buying albums, and illegal downloading has caused music in general to become almost worthless in monetary terms.
I'm inclined to say that limited editions are a good thing simply because they ensure that PHYSICAL PRODUCTS are still being produced, as opposed to just digital files. But the expense and and "limited" aspect is troubling, and I'm not sure what the solution would be. Thankfully I've never been a huge Elvis fan, so I didn't have to worry about whether to invest huge money in the boxed set.
Clearly, the catalog market needs to survive, as that seems to be the only way for physical albums to survive. The people who are likely to buy catalog music are the ones who were raised on LPs and CDs boxed sets and who have little use for downloads.
Mike and Don, I think you've both hit the nail on the head.
We watch Best Buy, Target, B&N, Borders, etc. (i.e. non-music specialty stores) all reducing the shelf space of CDs. Then, the labels cry that the CDs aren't selling well. Well, of course they're not -- nobody in the "general public" (those not reading this or any other music-related board, for instance!) can find them! For that reason -- I'll always champion FYE as long as they hold on. While you or I may find them overpriced, it's still the go-to store for many customers simply because they're the last man standing in the mall. (And I find more bargains in used CDs at FYE than just about anywhere else.) But I digress...
The media hits that average consumer over the head with their doctrine of "CDs are dying, digital is the future!" and that consumer shrugs and has no choice but to turn to iTunes or Amazon MP3.
We know, and the labels know, that there are plenty of folks out there who still desire physical CDs. Yes, the statistics don't lie; most of them are older, as the Napster/iTunes generation has indeed ascribed a worthless value to music thanks to the ephemeral nature of the mp3. But the music industry should be putting pressure on retailers to keep supporting the CD format; the major labels should also be trying to get the attention of younger consumers to convince them that the physical format is a viable one. By and large, though, the labels are too afraid to challenge the supremacy of iTunes and Amazon...and so the vicious circle continues, and physical product becomes that "niche" product of limited editions that Mike talks so eloquently about.
There are solutions, but as long as the media keeps painting the situation for CDs as bleaker and bleaker (despite the fact that the CD is still the best-selling format for music today), it's more and more of an uphill battle.
By the way...it's on the CompleteElvis.com site now that they WILL be releasing a second unnumbered run.
Taking email addresses for alerts on pre-orders now.
While many will bitch about this, I will say I am happy I purchased the set, I knew the price, and I will enjoy every second of it without feeling as though I should have waited for a cheaper version.
I'd be more pissed, personally, if I DID wait for a cheaper second run, and it winds up being at or near the same price point as the limited edition...which is a real possibility.
Hmmm, downloading and cherry picking songs in itself is not what is hurting album sales. It's downloading and cherry picking songs FOR FREE. I don't care what anyone says, the majority of downloading is still occurring illegally. Until that can be fixed (it may never be fixable) the album will appear to be dying. The problem is that there is no business model that can compete with FREE.
Commercial radio is killing music sales. Unless you have satellite radio, you hear the same 50 songs for 9 to 12 months in a row, rather than a few thousand different songs.
Hello,
Bill B., you are absolutely correct. As someone once told me, "cheap is good, but free is better." I'm also very much against different versions of the same album. For example, the upcoming "Viva Elvis" has a number of exclusive duets of the song "Love Me Tender" in markets outside the United States. Sony did this several years ago with the "Elvis Christmas Duets" CD. It's annoying too that there are differing versions of the same release such as the recent "Exile On Main Street" reissue.
I also think the quality of a lot of music out there today has a lot to be desired. Too much Auto-tune on vocals, mastering the music too hot for MP3 generation.
A great quote I recently read about Chet Atkins was engineer Bill Porter talking about how Chet taught him to monitor at a lower level. This allows one to get a better mix. A live concert is 130 to 140 db (decibels), depending upon where you're listening. If you are 5 feet from street traffic when a truck goes by, that's about 95 db. That is a reference point. Chet taught him to monitor at about 85 db. There is compensation in your hearing -- the lower the volume, the less high frequency you hear. Your ear automatically turns those frequencies up when you hear low volume. When you hear things that are loud, the things you would normally hear at a lower level are twice as loud. Your ears basically flatten out. The ears compensate for the difference, so you turn them down. Unfortunately, most people monitor at 105 to 110 db; this is too loud. Bill learned this from Chet. Chet had a great ear and a very sophisticated sense of musicality. This influenced everything Chet did as a producer, A&R man and guitarist. I think Bill's comments pretty much sum up why there's been a resurgence in vinyl. As far as Elvis is concerned, there are a lot of things that have only been made available on vinyl, especially mono mixes (both mainstream and promotional) on a number of singles.
Ultimately, I don't think you can pinpoint to one thing and lay the entire blame for the drop of physical music title sales. Illegal downloading, high costs, quality of some of the "new music", music mastered loud, the industry's inability to adopt a true successor, as far as physical medium, to the compact disc and the industry's inability to adopt early into MP3s. I don't agree with the Wal-Mart and the Best Buy exclusives, as I think these types of releases further fragment the big brick and mortar stores from what's left of the mom & pop stores.
It shipped
Any review forthcoming from "The Second Disc" not that the box set is out.