Picking A Nit With Amazon

[HaroldInNY]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#1

Posted: 6/17/15 at 1:16am

I routinely buy original cast recordings for the Broadway shows I see.  I mostly buy them from Amazon, and I prefer buying the MP3 version.

 

A while ago, Amazon announced that it was going to include a digitized version of the CD booklet (which for most Broadway shows contains a synopsis of the show and the song lyrics) with the MP3 song files.  They do indeed do so for many albums, but it is a hit-and-miss affair, and it is difficult to predict whether any particular album's MP3 version will come with or without the digitized booklet.

 

I strongly prefer having the CD booklet for the shows I have seen, and I have written (more than a year ago) to Amazon asking if they could try to include the CD booklet for the Broadway albums they sell, explaining the value of the synopsis.  I got a formula reply from Amazon saying that they would forward the suggestion to their digital music group, but nothing has changed. 

 

I'm not sure if it's an Amazon or a record label problem, but does anyone have any ideas about how we might get Amazon to routinely include the digitized CD booklet for Broadway show albums?

[jacobsnchz14]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#2

Posted: 6/17/15 at 1:20am

Usually the pattern shows that if a label has a digital booklet prepared for its digital release, then it will be included. Take GIGI for example. There is no booklet available either via iTunes or Amazon. Something newer like Something Rotten has booklets available through both platforms, thanks to the label and distribution/design team. It's always different. I love booklets and collect them, whether I get a digital copy or not (some people post them online), and its very inconsistent with which new recordings will have one or not.

[HaroldInNY]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#2

Posted: 6/17/15 at 1:28am

For some shows, I actually go through the effort of ordering the physical CD (for most CD's, Amazon obligingly also sends the MP3 files if you buy the CD) and scanning the booklet into a PDF.  It seems pretty dumb to have to do this in 2015, especially when the "booklet" is almost a book (eg, On the Twentieth Century).

 

Oddly, for Fun Home, Amazon does NOT include the MP3 files if you buy the CD, and it also does NOT include a digitized booklet if you buy the MP3 version.  Like, what are they thinking?

[HogansHero]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#3

Posted: 6/17/15 at 2:14am

They are not thinking.

The number of cast recordings that Amazon sells is infinitesimally small; everything is automated and if someone had to actually physically do something other than map what they get from the label to a purchaser, they would spend more money than they make. (Which is not much to begin with.) Your gripe (which may fare no better) is with the labels. I haven't but I think if you check you will see that what you get for different shows correlates with the label distributing the recording.

[Mr. Nowack]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#4

Posted: 6/17/15 at 2:39am

It always bugged me that a lot of PS Classics digital albums don't include the digital booklet. They've got better about it recently but for a while they didn't.

Amazon's cast album pages are often incorrect and generally poorly maintained.

Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated

Updated On: 6/17/15 at 02:39 AM

[Mr Roxy]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#5

Posted: 6/17/15 at 8:22am

I have problems with Amazon re their Kindle device.

They used to be good. They are no longer hungry & are more & more looking like a company that has gotten to big to care about its customers.

Poster Emeritus

[dramamama611]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#6

Posted: 6/17/15 at 9:12am

^Oh, please.  I've had no problems with their customer service about my kindle or anything else.   Always had prompt service, and reliable troubleshooting with problems.

 

 

I would guess the offering or not isn't up to amazon at all. 

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

[HogansHero]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#7

Posted: 6/17/15 at 9:40am

I have also had nothing but exemplary service from Amazon. And whenever there has been a problem, even with an outside vendor, they have always made it right and then some. 

[tazber]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#8

Posted: 6/17/15 at 9:46am

I also have had excellent experiences with their customer service.

 

....but the world goes 'round

[HaroldInNY]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#9

Posted: 6/17/15 at 11:05am

I've never had any problem with Amazon customer service; I think their service is quite exemplary.

 

Which, actually, is why I find this lack of CD booklets to be so annoying...

 

I looked at a selection of Broadway show albums currently available on Amazon, and it seems that there are certain labels whose albums seem to never include the booklets (PS Classics comes to mind), and other labels who usually (but not always) include it.  And then there are some labels for which it seems to be more random.

 

I think that Amazon must be setting some standards for the MP3 versions of the albums they sell.  For example, although it has changed over time, the MP3 files themselves are usually named in a standard way, and the MP3 metadata has at least some level of consistency.  It seems to me that if it is indeed the label that is responsible for producing the digitized booklet, Amazon can simply -- if they wanted to -- require it when the label submits an album for sale.

 

And I think it should require it.

[HogansHero]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#10

Posted: 6/17/15 at 11:33am

I still say you will have a better shot with the labels. Those MP3 standards you refer to cross genres. But you are asking for someone at Amazon to focus on cast recordings and that's just not gonna happen. As I said, the sales are minuscule. 

[HaroldInNY]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#11

Posted: 6/17/15 at 1:17pm

<nods>  I just fired off a quick letter to PS Classics after noticing that not a single one of their Original Cast albums had a digitized CD booklet available on Amazon.

 

Let's see how they respond.

[dramamama611]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#12

Posted: 6/17/15 at 1:20pm

They should REQUIRE it??   They don't care nor do they have any say how someone will release their info.  You want them to sell it, they will.  Pure and simple.

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

[tazber]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#13

Posted: 6/17/15 at 1:22pm

Their whole thing is to offer fully recorded shows (mostly) with deluxe books.

I imagine they'll get back to you and offer to send you a booklet.

They have pretty great customer service.

....but the world goes 'round

[neonlightsxo]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#14

Posted: 6/17/15 at 1:23pm

Harold, I don't think PS Classics is excluding booklets from Amazon. I bought my Fun Home CD on iTunes and there wasn't one. Maybe they just don't do digital booklets.

[jacobsnchz14]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#15

Posted: 6/17/15 at 2:00pm

PS Classics indeed does booklets more often now than before. I get my albums from iTunes; I have the booklets for the original Broadway and off-Broadway versions of FUN HOME.

[morosco]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#16

Posted: 6/17/15 at 9:14pm

 I directly emailed one of the labels about not being able to get a download of the booklet and they responded:

 

The company that submits our discs to the various digital sites allows us
to include a digital booklet at iTunes, but not at Amazon mp3.  I don't
understand all the reasons, but I gather it's part of THEIR deal with
Amazon mp3, and there's nothing, sadly, I can do about it.

 

 

[HaroldInNY]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#17

Posted: 6/18/15 at 12:41am

" I directly emailed one of the labels about not being able to get a download of the booklet and they responded:
 
The company that submits our discs to the various digital sites allows us
to include a digital booklet at iTunes, but not at Amazon mp3.  I don't
understand all the reasons, but I gather it's part of THEIR deal with
Amazon mp3, and there's nothing, sadly, I can do about it.
 
 "

 If it's OK with you, I would love to forward that to Amazon, in the hopes that they can clear it up.  After all, they seem to think they compete with iTunes, and they certainly would not want to be known as having the inferior product.

 

Would it be possible for you to identify the label, in a PM perhaps?   (Not that I know how PM's work here, but if you're game, I'm sure I can figure it out.)

 

[morosco]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#18

Posted: 6/18/15 at 12:16pm

Feel free to forward that to Amazon but I'm not at liberty to identify the label or the author of the response.

[HaroldInNY]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#19

Posted: 6/18/15 at 9:13pm

I fired off a letter to Amazon... we'll see if it accomplishes anything.

[Mr Roxy]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#20

Posted: 6/18/15 at 9:28pm

Don't hold your breath.

Poster Emeritus

[HaroldInNY]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#21

Posted: 6/19/15 at 1:14pm

I got a response from one of the record labels that has been doing a simply wonderful job of producing original cast albums lately, but has not been including a digitized version of their CD booklet on Amazon.  In it, they clearly indicate that the problem lies with Amazon... that they WANT to have the booklets made available to their customers, and that the booklets indeed are generally available on iTunes.  Apparently, they use a third-party company to supply Amazon with their MP3 tracks, and Amazon will not accept digitized CD booklets from this third-party company, much to the dismay of the label, the third-party company, AND Amazon's customers.

 

I've forwarded that information to Amazon (who had sent me a formula response to my note to them)... let's see if anything does happen.

[jacobsnchz14]

Picking A Nit With Amazon#22

Posted: 6/19/15 at 1:19pm

HaroldInNYC, check your messages.