Troubling CD sales figures- Page 3

[musicnmath]

Posted: 6/17/05 at 11:11pm

Just to choose a random album- Ragtime for $40? You can get it on Amazon for $23

...and you can get it on half.ebay.com for $15. Of course, I'm loathe to share my "secret" source because I'll now be competing with you all

I guess this places me in the middle. I don't buy albums new new if I can help it, I'll buy them off other people. So while I'm not downloading, I'm also not really contributing to new sales numbers, I guess.

Except when I want the shows that *just* came out...then I turn to amazon :)


Updated On: 6/17/05 at 11:11 PM

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:11am

Every cast album I have I purchased myself or received as a gift. I have done my share of p2p downloading in the past, but never for cast albums. I like the artwork too much, I like to little books. Hell, if Nonesuch produced every album in the world, then I would buy them too, no matter what music was on them.

I sympathize with those of you who burn them from others, and if you're a poor, young high school student, I don't really condemn you for it (though I hope you grow out of it).

As I recently stated in another thread, I have now purchased 12 copies of Floyd Collins from amazon.com for my family, friends, and even my car mechanic. Adam Guettel may not need my money, but he needs my support. On the other hand, Michael John LaChiusa had to sell his friggin' piano just to afford a place to live so he could finish writing Marie Christine. Support the artists you love!!!

[Hairspraydoll]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 5:15am

I try to buy my cd's based on I want the jackets, etc...
and I agree in supporting cd sales. I do understand that cd's get expensive though and occasionally I'll get a burned copy from someone. Once I decide I like it, I usually almost always buy the original.

I just bought:
Little Women
Piazza
DRS
Brooklyn
Spelling Bee and
Tick Tick Boom

[Greekmusicalfan]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 7:04am

freeadmission wrote :

" I don't burn OCR's for two reasons:

1) To support Broadway and the people who make it and make it all happen.
and
2) I'm a sucker for shiny pictures and liner notes. "

My view exactly. Plus the fact that since English is not my primary language, I really like to have the lyrics and read them while listening to the songs. Of course I am sometimes pissed off, when I get an OCR and find out that the producers have only put a stingy 2 page leaflet accompanying the CD, but what can I do ? If I don't have money (like now) I wait until I do and then get my Cast Recordings from amazon. On my to buy list for the moment are :
Light in the Piazza
All Shook Up
Altar Boyz
Spamalot
Updated On: 6/18/05 at 07:04 AM

[Kicks8567]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 10:05am

I bought Spelling Bee, Little Women, Light in the Piazza, Forbidden Broadway SVU, All Shook Up, and Spamalot and received the DRS CD at the giveaway, but am planning on buying the full version. I had to burn Altar Boyz because I ran out of $$.

[riv]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 10:36am

A lot of new stuff has been coming out recently, so that's what I've been purchasing. I have almost all of them (even All Shook Up, God help me) except Alter Boyz, which I feel is a put-on.

Otherwise, I purchase the newly released "old" shows (like Seventeen/High Button Shoes) or imports (Mary Poppins).

I think some of the kids around here could help the cause if they'd do likewise instead of listening to Tick Tick Boom for the 467th time.

(And perhaps it's my age, but the idea of downloading music is something I won't even consider.)

[sabrelady]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:43pm

Bought recently
Spamalot - not impressed won't play much( xcept Sara's tracks)
DRS -Play all the time love it
Fbdn Bway Play a lot too
Will get Piazza when avail in TO (soon I think)

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 2:21pm

WOW I go away for a day and all kinds of stuff to get caught up on....

1. My opinion (only) but if you buy a CD and it gets damaged, borrowing and burning a replacement copy is legit. After all you paid for it and you still have the booklet and J-card. (Just it has no re-sale value - you can't sell it on E-bay.)

2. Buying SEPIA (and PRISM) releases of older OCR's is fine to fill gaps in your library. (HIGH BUTTON SHOES was briefly out on CD from RCA SPecial Products, while SEVENTEEN has never had an official CD issue.) However, these are labels that do reissues of Public Domain titles and they DO NOT PAY the original record companies to use thair recordings. Thanks to SEPIA's issue of SEVENTEEN we can pretty much write off any chance that RCA Victor will give it a formal CD release, remastereing it from the original session tapes. (Not that RCA would anyhow, the dozen or so titles that had not been on CD when they closed down their theatre music division - HAZEL FLAGG, SAY DARLING, SAINT OF BLEEKER STREET etc - were unlikely candidates for CD transfer.)

3. $40 seems very high for RAGTIME (IMHO,the best score of the last 10 years) so shop around. Amazon and Deep Discount may have it for less.

4. I am impressed with the dedication many here have to buying as many of the current OCR's as budgets will withstand. I began collecting seriously 30 years ago buying every new OCR that I could get my hnads on. To date I have amassed 3,500 LPs, 45s, 78s, and CDs and quickly running out of room. The only one of the new releases I have not gotten is SPELLING BEE but it should be in Toronto stores this week. My favourite is PIAZZA..so far.

5. GREEKMUSICFAN - do you have dificulty finding Broadway cast albums in your area?

[Demitri2]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 2:21pm

A possible solution? Settle down in a long term relationship with a fellow theater lover. That way with your combined income EVERYTHING is 50% off...lol.

[whatyouown223]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 2:51pm

I bought all four nominated cast recordings.

[Greekmusicalfan]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 3:45pm

frontrowcentre2, it is not only difficult, it is impossible ! While there is an abundancy of soundtracks, since you can get the soundtrack to ANY movie, the only Cast Recordings available in Greece are some from the huge and very popular worldwide shows like Phantom, Les Mis, Cats, Chicago, etc. They have to be imported, so maybe they think there is not a big market for them and they are probably right ! Though the soundtrack to the Phantom film was a massive seller here and it spent something like 8 weeks at the # 1 of the albums chart and went gold !

[jasonf]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 4:32pm

I buy EVERY CD that I can -- I've bought ALL the recent ones, and I constantly search for rare ones that I don't have. Trips to NY usually include a stop at the Virgin Megastore -- but I've more or less outgrown the store already. I don't even download off itunes (musicals, that is) because I want the cases as part of my collection. This recent spate of recordings was the real test of that. I could have downloaded them all and probably saved a good 20-30 bucks (considering there were about 10 I bought in the last few weeks), but I'd rather have the cases to look at. I haven't counted recently, but my CD count for cast recordings is probably somewhere up around 600, not counting compilations, solo albums etc.
Jason

[riv]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 5:48pm

I realize logic may tell one that a release of public domain material from Sepia and Prism may cause a "legitmate" release by RCA or others to be cancelled (assuming they intended on doing it to begin with), but I am unaware of an instance where that specifically happened. I'm not saying it hasn't, however...

I do know that Jasmine put out This Is The Army/Call Me Mister BEFORE Decca Broadway (Universal) issued the same (and included songs from the non-musical Winged Victory). So I do know of a specific instance in which a label with the rights to something went ahead anyway and apparently wasn't concerned with a previous public domain release.

By the way, am I correct in believing Sepia and Prism can release this material in the U.S. because technically their CDs are imports?

I wouldn't think of not supporting Sepia. I love them--and they're very economical as well.





Updated On: 6/18/05 at 05:48 PM

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 5:54pm

buying musical cds is tricky, lucky for me there is a shop that specializes in it a couple blocks from my house! yay! lolz.... ive bought every new cd 'cept for the Boyz and Bee because they're not in yet. i do my part

[LucilleAndLeoFrank]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 6:17pm

Most recent CDs I have bought:
The Light in the Piazza
Spelling Bee
Sondheim Sings (if this counts)
Hair (concert)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Pacific Overtures (revival)
Into the Woods (OLC)

I am against burning CDs, but I make an exception for out-of-print cast recordings. If not for burning, I wouldn't have copies of Dance a Little Closer, A Doll's Life, Wildcat, Mack and Mabel (London), etc.

Posted: 6/18/05 at 7:14pm

I recently bought-

Little Women-good.
All Shook Up- really good.


I've heard:
Spamlot- good... but kinda boring in the middle...

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 8:52pm

Hey GREEK, I have a friend in Croatia and he experiences the same problem you do. Ordering direct from AMAZON.COM is probably your best bet.

RIV - the Jasmine release caught Decca by surprise because they had already planned their CD release of those titles and were in the process of re-mastering the original glass/metal parts. As it turned out the opening part of "When We Meet Again" in CALL ME MISTER had been edited from the original 10" Lp and so the DECCA CD was truly complete. (As are their CD's of OKLAHOMA!, UP IN CENTRAL PARK, CONG OF NORWAY and CARMEN JONES all of which losts songs - or portions of songs - in their initial LP transfers.) DECCA was considering scrapping their release of CALL ME MR/THIS IS THE ARMY but their legal department determined that they still hold the North American copywrite. So they sent a strong letter to U.S. distributors and they pretty much kept the Jasmine release from these shores. I am surprised SONY hasn't done the same to stop the import and sale of the PRISM releases. (DECCA also issued a cease & desist to Box Office to withdraw their inferior CD's of CONNECTICUT YANKEE, SONG OF NORWAY and MERRY WIDOW. The Decca releases sound much much better!)

And JASONF .... not sure what you have heard but try these FABULOUS FLOPS:

ST LOUIS WOMAN (ANGEL)
A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (SONY)
FLAHOOLEY (DRG)
OF THEE I SING - 1952 revival (DRG)
SEVENTH HEAVEN (DECCA)
ON YOUR TOES - 1954 revival (DECCA)
HOUSE OF FLOWERS (SONY)
HAPPY HUNTING (RCA VICTOR)
NEW GIRL IN TOWN (RCA VICTOR)
JAMAICA (RCA VICTOR)
GOLDILOCKS (SONY)
JUNO (FYNSWORTH ALLEY)
TAKE ME ALONG (RCA VICTOR)
WHOOP UP (POLYDOR)
WILDCAT (RCA VICTOR)
SAIL AWAY (ANGEL)
SUBWYAS ARE FOR SLEEPING (FYNSWORTH ALLEY)
MILK AND HONEY (RCA Victor)
DO RE MI (RCA VICTOR)
LITTLE ME (RCA VICTOR)
110 IN THE SHADE (RCA VICTOR)
HENRY SWEET HENRY (VARESE SARABANDE)
DEAR WORLD (SONY)
70 GIRLS 70 (SONY)
MACK AND MABEL (DECCA)
BALLRROM (SONY)
THE GRAND TOUR (FYNSWORTH ALLEY)
THE GOODBYE GIRL (COLUMBIA)
THE LIFE (SONY)
STEEL PIER (RCA VICTOR)

Some of these are out-of-print but check E-BAy and Amazon for used copies.

[MLE]

Posted: 6/18/05 at 9:15pm

Just my 2 cents...

I love buying ORCs, more than any other type of CD, I love the whole package. However, I don‘t own a lot. Here's why:

1.) I'm a high school student and my family is by no means wealthy. I have a summer job as a caddie, and getting paid isn't a for sure thing. I'm currently looking for another job. CDs are so expensive! And because I HAVE splurged recently and bought a couple for about $18-$20 a piece, my funds are running low.
Yes, I download. Because CDs are so much, I have to do some research before I invest. It is more convenient to download since I listen to my music mostly on my iPod. That's not going to stop me from buying CDs though. I just copy them straight onto iTunes once I get them. OCRs are the exceptions to my listening habits That’s really the only type of CD I will actually put in and listen to beginning to end.

Believe me, if I had the money, I’d go crazy buying them but unfortunately, that’s just not the case right now.

[Greekmusicalfan]

Posted: 6/19/05 at 1:36am

Since this seems the most relevant thread to ask, could someone please tell me if PIAZZA's, Spamalot's and Altar Boyz's packagings include the lyrics ?

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 6/19/05 at 1:59am

I have to agree with MLE.

I am also a high school student. I have two minimum wage jobs, and I barely make enough to take care of the necessities (gas, car insurance, etc.) and still have enough to go out with my friends once in a while. I can't just go ask mommy and daddy for the money, because well... it just doesn't work that way.

I'm all about supporting the artists and Broadway, but buying the cast recordings is just not an option for me financially. Living where I do, I can't make it to Broadway every week to see a show, so these albums are the only way for me to experience the magic of Broadway here. I can't make myself spend $15-20 for a CD when I can get it from the library for free.

I'm sorry, but I'm sure it's easier when you have a real career that actually pays you more than $6.00 an hour. Until that happens for me, I apologize.

[Starburst]

Posted: 6/19/05 at 2:42am

Being in the "poor, young high school student" category, I've burned most of my collection from the library. I have surprised myself lately in buying...nearly 5 recordings!

-Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
-The Last 5 Years
-A Year With Frog and Toad
-Amour
And I guess that Frank Sinatra CD doesn't really count. So I've bought 4. I'm not so helpful, then. I borrowed/burned Light in the Piazza from a friend, and was sent the Spamalot mp3s.

But I do prefer to buy them. I love reading along with the songs. I actually listen to them that way. As soon as I get a job/find that $20 gift certificate I have from Silver Platters I'm going to get...something. Not sure what, yet.

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 6/19/05 at 2:56am

I hear ya' Staburst. Nearly my entire CD collection is burned from the library... including the majority of my 108 cast recordings. I just burned Piazza from a friend and my teacher just burned me Spamalot.

I may be forced to buy Spelling Bee, DRS, Altar Boyz, and Forbidden Broadway SVU, because I don't know anyone who has them. I wish I could afford to buy them all because I love the librettos and information contained in the insert, but I have "no flow". "Zoom in on my empty wallet."

"Touche"

...and kudos on the Sinatra CD. I haven't found many other high schoolers that dig Frank!

Updated On: 6/19/05 at 02:56 AM

[Starburst]

Posted: 6/19/05 at 4:23am

I LOVE Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, all those jazz singers. *siigh* You just don't get that kind of sound or those kinds of songs anymore. I was so excited when I heard Michael Buble for the first time.

Spelling Bee! That's the other one I wanted. Now it's a toss up between that, Altar Boyz and Michael Buble's new(er) CD for my gift certificate. Any votes?

...funny that I should find Parade is ready for me to pick up at the library as I'm reading this thread. Yet another CD that shall be at the mercy of my burner and added to my collection. Mwaha.

[Greekmusicalfan]

Posted: 6/19/05 at 10:05am

So, noone can bother to answer my question ? Anyone ?

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 6/19/05 at 10:44am

Greekmusicafan: Spamalot and Piazza's do. I don't know about Altar Boyz.