Intrada Soundtrack Forum

9/8/11

STILL MORE POLICY STUFF!!

With two days past and myself, Roger, Jeff, George and Steve... and even Joe (when we could tear him away from working on CD art) all spending every hour available either processing sales or babbling about our policy changes, we've made time to start implementing our plans. Given the feedback (mostly positive), here are our next steps in getting CDs to as many people as is practical while honoring the AFM and studio policies already in place. They're making this music possible, of course. (And, by the way, the feedback from those peerless musicians of the AFM is heartwarming.) Anyway, here goes round two.

We've already locked down our terminology, or branding if you will, that will appear on newly printed inlay cards for the second batch of EXPLORERS as well as on future releases. We're not huge fans of people buying and instantly re-selling our CDs at inflated prices even before we begin shipping the discs out but we understand the nature of business and say 'more power to them' if folks want to invest in their futures by chancing their cash on soundtracks. Investments help keep our free enterprise system chugging along. So we're literally branding any "second editions" and whatnot accordingly. I myself collect "first editions", so this lets me continue doing so. If your EXPLORERS has the original 3000 number on it, yep, it's a "first edition". Just like the world of books and whatever. But PLEASE don't simply label these things "limited editions" any more, and here's our reasoning why.

EVERYTHING'S becoming a limited edition. Those two words have become meaningless. The terminolgy was never intended to be a marketing tool but was designed by it's "authors" to facilitate the release of a small quantity of albums into the hands of dedicated fans while keeping the costs feasible. That was it! Somehow, it's just grown into a monster eating itself alive by labels everywhere branding everything "limited", though the actual market interest may be smaller than the printed number indicated! Even major labels issue stuff and drop it without fanfare when sales recede. The net result is now a non-stop barrage of really worthy soundtracks masquerading as "limited" editions, all zooming towards the same small audience struggling to prioritize in the first place, be it Goldsmith or Fidenco, Bernstein or Plumeri. It's insane! Now, we know we can't have our cake and eat it, too. But maybe we can do something to help keep the lunatics from running the asylum. So... look for branding that distinguishes first editions from second editions and whatever. And PLEASE keep in mind: we have enough smarts to usually be in the ball park so don't often expect first printings, then second printings, then third ones and so forth. Usually one additional batch will do.

Finally, PLEASE think about the following because I have for three or four years now. No matter how CDs are branded, and how much a customer buys with the understanding of getting something limited, labels everywhere are RE-ISSUING stuff left and right. If you bought the Varese Sarabande CD Club issue of FLESH + BLOOD for it's unique appeal, you later found Prometheus improving on it and issuing it again. Frustrated? Well, after that disappeared, we improved on it yet again. And THAT disappeared. No doubt some enterprising label is readying it a fourth time. That spectacular limited CASINO ROYALE is coming out again soon. Heck, few things aren't. And - unlike rare original posters or prints that usually can't be improved upon - with CDs, each subsequent "reissue of a reissue" gets better! Think COMMANDO this week. So maybe the lunatics will keep on running the asylum afterall. I don't know. But I'm glad to know that while what we're doing may be brazen, it's helping us get more music out to you people. So stay tuned.