how can i get shows to do cast cd made

[bryan]

Posted: 12/19/13 at 12:40am

hi how do i get shows like after midnight and off broadway shows to get them to do a cast cd of they show.

[bwaylyric]

Posted: 12/19/13 at 12:59am

Write them a check for a few million dollar$.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/19/13 at 5:46am

Bryan....you know the answer. It's all about money, nowhere near a million dollars, but it takes money AND the prospect of earning that money back.

No one wishful person can make it happen.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 12/19/13 at 9:13am

It's mostly about money- but it's also more complicated than that. Updated On: 12/19/13 at 09:13 AM

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/19/13 at 9:26am

It's all about money, nowhere near a million dollars, but it takes money AND the prospect of earning that money back.

Which is why I wonder how all these Kickstarter projects are happening lately with people willingly ceding the right to a return on their investment. But that's a debate for another thread.

[ukpuppetboy]

Posted: 12/19/13 at 9:55am

Yoda just loves them show tunes 'neonlights'.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/19/13 at 2:19pm

Bryan....you know the answer.

If he's ever read the responses to every time he's raised this question over the last ten years, then yes, he should know the answer.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 12/19/13 at 4:48pm

"it's also more complicated than that"

actually, neon, it isn't.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/19/13 at 5:25pm

How can we get you to stop asking the same question, over and over again?

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 12/19/13 at 5:33pm

Or you could do what Bruce Yeko did, and just produce them yourself.

Actually, they are being recorded much more often than they were before, because they realize that it is a cheap form of advertising for a licensible show. People are less reluctant to produce a high school or community theater show they have never seen if they can a least hear a professional recording of the songs.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/19/13 at 7:50pm

I liked what someone brought up recently in another thread - they should include that cost in the initial budget when raising the money to produce the show.

[chewy5000]

Posted: 12/20/13 at 3:41am

That's often how it used to be done, I believe, when record labels would invest in return for the rights to record the show.

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 12/20/13 at 12:09pm

I get them drunk and over to my house and a little prompting and they're off!

[HogansHero]

Posted: 12/20/13 at 2:40pm

chewy-I am not familiar with that happening but in any event today (because the rights usually have a negative value-that is, the record company is PAID to make the recording rather than paying for it) this makes no sense.

[cknick]

Posted: 12/20/13 at 4:04pm

On a slightly different subject, I'd like to see plays get audio recordings. Strange?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/20/13 at 4:25pm

Hogan, chewy is correct. Back when cast recordings were actually a lucrative business, labels would regularly invest in shows with the anticipation of a possibly best-selling cast recording. Columbia funded MY FAIR LADY considerably, and made back a mint on the album. RCA Victor put up a large chunk of money for BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S as well, but that was somewhat less lucrative.

There is also the notorious incident where RCA funded Irving Berlin's CALL ME MADAM almost entirely, but star Ethel Merman was under contract to Decca. Decca wouldn't release Merman from her contract and RCA wouldn't give up the album rights, so two albums were made.

The world of cast recordings has changed considerably, and now it is exactly the reverse. No label is going to clamor for rights to a Broadway show, let alone fund it from the beginning.

cknick, plays were also recorded time to time, often the whole show in a lavish three LP box set. A lot of these were done by Columbia. The OBC of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF is a fantastic recording, and really ought to be released on CD or at least digitally.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 12/20/13 at 5:16pm

Nowak, thanks for the details. That was obviously before my time. (Well, not obviously, but it was.) Today, as someone else said, they are usually marketing tools, not so much for the Broadway production as for an afterlife. Sometimes, not even that but because someone loves the show and is willing to pay for it (just as some shows come in because someone wants them to, without regard to any viable financial explanation.) But raising the money upfront is not appealing, both because it's hard enough to raise the money you HAVE to raise, and also because it would dilute investor's interest in the property.

[cknick]

Posted: 12/20/13 at 5:17pm

I too have that Virginia Woolf. That inspired my post!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/21/13 at 3:14pm

bryan,

We all know how much you enjoy cast albums. The truth of the matter is that not every show does an obc. It's a matter of business. They can't go through the expense of producing an album for a handful of people who want to hear it. Just deal with it.

I would have loved a recording of Patrick Wilson's performance in OKLAHOMA! but it didn't happen and my life hasn't changed for the worse. Similarly, I would have loved a cast recording of Ginger Rogers' MAME but that didn't happen either and the world is still spinning.

We can't have everything we want in this world.

Updated On: 12/22/13 at 03:14 PM