The Next Death of the "Original Cast Recording"

[fgreene1938]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 9:14pm

I live in Boston and in the last 3-4 years so many CD stores have died that there's practically nothing left. Five years ago almost any OBC recording was stocked, including ancient ones. Now, nothing. The old Billy Elliot is around, and I bought the only copy of West Side Story at Best Buy because no one else had it. Anything else, including N2N and Hair, I had to buy on line because stores weren't carrying them. Sign of the times, sure. But it doesn't bode well for OBC recordings in general, which keep shows alive for generations. Is this what's happening everywhere? (I assume so)

[adamgreer]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 9:16pm

I haven't bought a CD in a store other than Barnes and Noble in years.

Every Barnes and Noble I've ever been in has had a very good collection of cast recordings.

I mostly buy online, however. It's a lot cheaper.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 9:17pm

Yes. It's happening everywhere. Not just cast albums, but CD sales in general. Digital is taking over.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 9:20pm

I only buy on line. Much, much cheaper. I do however, buy actual cds....I don't like digital.

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 9:22pm

I almost always buy my CDs on iTunes. CD stores in my area rarely have Broadway Cast Recordings (Other than Jersey Boys, Wicked, Shrek, and The Little Mermaid). On the rare occasion that I find a CD I'd be interested in buying, I buy it...but that doesn't happen often, and rather than waiting for days for my CD to come from Amazon, I just do it the quick way and log onto iTunes.

Updated On: 8/18/09 at 09:22 PM

[broadway122]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 9:43pm

Sadly, yes. One Borders store in my area used to have a huge selection. But because of the hard economic times they scrapped the whole section. Now they only have the top 25 albums on Billboard. However, a Barnes and Noble near me still has a great selection.

[fgreene1938]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 9:46pm

The cast recording sections in the Barnes and Noble stores around Boston are about 1/5 the size they were 5 years ago and Borders Books is discontinuing their section. It's sad. Tower records up here use to have a huge OBC section that carried almost everything from the last 60 years and new releases were available immediately. It's gone now and almost no one carries OBCs anymore (or anything else for that matter).

[CapnHook]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 9:48pm

This is nothing new. There's no "decline" it's just always been minimal/dead (except for B&N stores). Movie Soundtracks, while carried in stores, don't sell well neither. BUT...gues what the best-selling Movie Soundtracks are? MOVIE MUSICALS. When a hit movie musical comes out, the soundtrack sells better than any other movie. Chicago, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, even Once!

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 10:27pm

I know for a fact that there are some cast recordings Barnes & Noble isn't even carrying anymore. I had to get Marie Christine off of Amazon.com

[bryan]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 11:20pm

i hate it to because shows that i want will never see the light of day on cd like cry baby and inner city and others.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 11:27pm

Yes all the Borders here have downsized and carry very little music. They have to special order everything and there is no point to that because their prices are so high. I bought the one copy of 9 to 5 OBCR they had and it was defective so they had to give me a credit because they dont stock it.

It makes me sad because I used to love perusing music sections looking for new or interesting music. That no longer exists. Also, I still dislike digital music. I like my CDs, booklets, and having a hard copy. I also do not think the sound quality is as good with digital as it is on a CD.

[musicalmack]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 11:28pm

The Barnes and Noble nearby has a pretty excellent cast recording selection, but any Broadway singer's individual album is nowhere to be found. I checked the availability of Audra McDonald's CDs at the B&N website, and the the 15 nearest stores are all out of stock.

The best store around was Virgin, but now that that's gone we don't have much around anymore.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 11:55pm

I like my CDs, booklets, and having a hard copy.

I am with you 100% there. I do copy the CD's onto the HD of my computer because I use various tracks to compile my weekly radio programs. But should my HD ever crash I still have the discs. Also I take the CD's into the studio when I record my program so I can reference info about each show.

Digital DL's are great for getting stuff the day it comes out, but I still want the CD.

I refuse to use itunes because they list every show album as a "soundtrack" (ughh!!!) AND they won't let you change it! No thanks.

I was collecting cast albums long before we even had CD's and was fortunate to have been around in the boon years of OCR reissues. I quickly grabbed just about everything that came out on Cd because I knew that KWAMINA and WHOOP-UP would not stay in print for long.

Now just about everything of value has been reissued on CD at least once. (It's possible we might even get INNER CITY from Arkiv one day. After all they did give us JIMMY and LET IT RIDE.)

Updated On: 8/18/09 at 11:55 PM

[fgreene1938]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 12:13am

I'm with all you CD lovers who appreciate the packaging, liner notes and photos that downlodes lack. It was even better in the days of LPs when you'd get a record sleeve that opened up and had photos, lyrics, libretto and a big shot of the show's logo. If it wasn't for the CD era, many out-of-print shows would have never seen the light of day again. That era's over now. Too bad for musical theater lovers, past-present-and-future.

[ravnquest1]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 12:26am

Updated On: 6/17/17 at 12:26 AM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 12:35am

I refuse to use itunes because they list every show album as a "soundtrack" (ughh!!!) AND they won't let you change it! No thanks.

What do you mean they won't let you change it? You can change any of the listed information.

[Amalia Balash]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 3:20am

This thread reminds me how much I miss Tower Records. I spent hours in the New York and London stores over the years and I always found obscure recordings of cast albums. They had staff who knew their stuff there once upon a time.

Now I buy online and while it's cheaper, it's just not the same.

[yay_gerb]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 3:25am

it took me 6 stores and 4 days to find a Sara Barielles cd. a couple months ago. it's a shame really. i have bought digital, but it's just so much better actually owning the cd. unless the price difference is huge i usually buy the cd.

[binau]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 3:26am

" like my CDs, booklets, and having a hard copy. I also do not think the sound quality is as good with digital as it is on a CD."

This is probably the case for how cast recordings are available on iTunes or whatnot, but you can store music in lossless formats which will not lose any quality from a CD. I'd imagine in the future, eventually, everything will be like that.

[Love the Tussin]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 3:48am

I don't care how good of a selection B&N has for cast recordings (and yes, their selection is great... or at least it was the last time I checked, in like 2006), I'm not buying a CD which is priced at the list price. (Well, I'm really not buying a CD period, but that's another story.) That's so 1998 Sam Goody. Like anyone pays $20 for a CD anymore. I think the last time I did that was when I bought a Blink 182 album behind my parents' backs in 1999.

I refuse to use itunes because they list every show album as a "soundtrack" (ughh!!!) AND they won't let you change it! No thanks.

There are plenty of reasons to dislike iTunes's store (just passable bitrate, AAC protection), but after you download a song to your hard drive, you absolutely should be able to edit the genre information in iTunes. I think people are way too obsessive about the term cast recording anyway, but that's another story.

Updated On: 8/19/09 at 03:48 AM

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 7:40am

^ I haven't paid list price on anything at B&N in 3 years. Most of their stuff, especially the first week or two is 2-3 dollars cheaper. Add in the Member Card ($25/year...I save that much in 2 months), and the 25% off coupons you get every 3-4 weeks and you're golden.

And, B&N HAS sales, and advertises, they just don't need weekly ads or TV ads, because they have the market on Books cornered. They aren't hurting economically (at least, no where on the level of Borders)

[After Eight]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 9:43am

I certainly hope the cd doesn't go the way of the dinosaur, especially since there remain quite a few commercially-recorded cast albums which have yet to be transferred to cd. Let's hope they get transferred soon! I've created a partial list of them. Perhaps others can add to it, or make corrections.

Broadway:

Cranks
Mrs. Patterson
At the Drop of a Hat
At the Drop of Another Hat
The Billy Barnes Review
Beg, Borrow, or Steal (studio cast album entitled Clara)
Young Abe Lincoln
Donnybrook!
Man in the Moon
The Zulu and the Zayda
A Time for Singing
Cry for Us All
Earl of Ruston
Ain't Suppopsed to Die a Natural Death
To Live Another Summer- To Pass Another Winter
Inner City
Different Times
Heathen (New Zealand Cast album called Aloha!)
Ambassador
Billy Bishop Goes to War
Eubie
Rockabye Hamlet (Canadian cast)
Your Arms Too Short to Box With God


Off-Broadway:

Greenwich Village, USA
All in Love
Fly Blackbird
Riverwind
The Prince and the Pauper
Ballad for Bimshire
Cindy
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Half-Past Wednesday
Man With a Load of Mischief
House of Leather
The Golden Screw
How to Steal an Election
Gertrude Stein's First Reader
Touch
Philemon
Tuscaloosa's Calling Me But I'm Not Going
A Bistro Car on the CNR (Canadian cast)
Exchange
Hard Job Being God
In Circles
Ka-Boom
Peace
Piano Bar
Cleavage
Preppies

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 9:56am

I haven't bought any CD in a store in close to 10 yrs. And I have never seen a record store with a decent musicals section, except for used stores.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 10:25am

I haven't checked recently, but here in NYC the J&R store (opposite City Hall) had a very decent selection of theatre recordings - anyone been there recently?

And yes, too many titles have never made it to CD - as mentioned, where is INNER CITY, DIFFERENT TIMES, and BILLY BARNES REVUE, my top 3 wants.

[fgreene1938]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 1:17pm

DRG Records has a website that's full of CD re-releases of classic OBCs that have been out-of-print for decades. I recently bought "Happy Hunting", "Milk and Honey" and "Wildcat" and they arrived pretty quickly. Also, DRG recently slashed their list prices to about half of what B&N charges, though B&N has rarely stocked any of the DRG catalog. The only store in Boston that ever did was the late great Tower Records, which is long gone now. Anyone interested in the old classics should take a look at the DRG site.

By the way, the B&N OBC section (at least in the Boston area) is a wisp of what it once was. Even the new CDs (N2N, WSS, Hair) were not stocked upon release. B&N was taking customer orders at list price (19.9. Needless to say, I wasn't buying.