Picking A Nit With Amazon

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

<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.

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.

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.

" 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.)

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

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.