Pick of the new June releases

[Harvey2]

Here's my pick of the new releases for June;

Someday I'm going to soar - Dexys

Boys Don't Cry - Rumer

After Hours - Glenn Frey

Early for a Thursday - Jaywalkers

[KenB]

Thanks Harvey. After a difficult to explain slowdown on my part, I’m tapping into more new music lately.

Here’s a general question I’ll toss out. I was wondering if there’s any interest in doing our own album reviews? We could talk about picks of the best (or worst?) of the new albums we’re buying. Some opinions about what we’re currently hearing might help move things along. Just a thought…

[Harvey2]

Hi Ken, it would be great to read some music reviews on here. I was intrigued by your review of Rumer. By the way, the vinyl version of BDC features ten tracks taken from the fourteen found on the "Deluxe CD". Speaking of which, when are the "suits" going to stop conning us fans out of our pennies? The trend for releasing regular 10 track CDs and the Deluxe version with a few extra tracks at extra cost, stinks of exploitation. It's no wonder CD sales are down and likely to go the way of the mini-disc.

[KenB]

I agree, I find personal reviews revealing. Why we like/dislike a particular disc makes our critical content interesting to read.

Harvey, would it be fair to say that consumers have shown resistance to CD price increases? I ask because CD prices seem to have stayed in check for over a decade and maybe it’s not a coincidence that the internet has taken off during the same period. And we know the internet has not been kind to the recording business. I think bonus material was considered as an enticement to get consumers back into the retail outlets, or an enticement to graduate consumers into online purchases.
Enhanced CDs with graphics was tried back in the 1990s and maybe it was inevitable that CDs and DVD material would be packaged together. Bonus tracks seem to be the latest attempt to entice consumers.
I would have put money on merged content, like albums with full video included on a single disc. I wonder now if two sales streams are factored by the suits as a temporary bridge to the future. Right now things like concert DVDs and studio produced CDs seem to be non- competing categories, and hence two royalty streams. Can this last?

[Harvey2]

Hi Ken, I once knew a guy in Leeds(my home town) who invested a lot of money in Betamax Video Recorders. I can still recall the day that he took me into his storeroom and showed me "the future". Unfortunately, VHS was just around the corner and you can guess the rest. Fortunately, my friend was a good Jewish businessman and he survived his mistake. I thought that CDs were the future once, which in a way, they were but rather than enhance the music industry, they appear to have set it back. Official sales figures for 2011 show overall CD sales to be about 30% down on 2010 and they continue to fall. The problem, as always, lies in corporate greed - the investers wanting too high a return on a dwindling market. They try to recover their losses by selling the same product twice or more times. Look at Paul Simon's "Graceland" - brilliant album but reissued three times already at premium prices. You will recall the days when a vinyl album usually had twelve tracks - then when album sales soared in the 70s, they cut the tracks to 10 thereby reducing the royalties etc. in order to maximise their profits. Now, I'm not a Marxist and I well understand the benefits of capitalism but I draw the line when I sense that I am being ripped off. I want CDs to hold at least 12 to 15 tracks unless of course, it's one of those bands who tend to do long stuff (you know who they are ;-) and I want re-issues to be mid-price whatever that happens to be. In the UK, I'd put it at £7.99 but I'll settle for less! I want more artists to use digipacks etc. This doesn't look like it will happen though.

[Richard H]

Hi Ken & Harvey, thought I'd throw in my thoughts. First, if two versions of this post appear please accept my apologies, I've just submitted one & it's vanished, so here goes again!

I think Neil Young is on the ball in the technology department, he's heavily promoting blu-ray as a format. The sound is vastly superior to cd & the picture to dvd. His album "Le Noise" was filmed as he recorded it, so buyers could either listen to it or watch it whilst listening etc.

With regard to revenue streams, I imagine that the record industry must be near to admitting defeat in that area. (Anyone in the industry feel free to shoot me down as this is just my opinion.) I base this theory on the low costs of buying music compared to the horrendous cost of concert ticket prices. Back in the early to mid 80's when I, as a teenager,was going to a lot of gigs, the average price of a ticket to see a successful band was approx £5. The cost of buying the album they were touring to promote was approx £4.50, in other words buying an album & going to a gig cost just about the same. Nowadays an average ticket is £30 - £45, & the album costs approx £10. And the "super gigs" are even worse. I saw Queen at Wembley Stadium in 1986, THE big gigs of that summer, & the tickets were £12.50, roughly 3 times the cost of the album they were promoting. Last year my neighbours went to see Bon Jovi do a big out door gig, £150 a ticket, 15 times the cost of the CD! (& they weren't the most expensive tickets!!). And Bon Jovi are not unique in this, the Stones, Elton, etc etc all have similar ticket options. I know there are exceptions, & that I'm generalising, but I can't help but think that things must have turned 180 degrees over the last 25 years & that touring, rather than record sales, is where the money is for many established acts.

Harvey, whilst I personally think that buying albums has never been cheaper in real terms, I agree with you 100% about the extra tracks racket. The one that makes my blood boil is when, as a fan, I dutifully buy a new album by an artist I follow when it's released only to see a "deluxe version" issued a few months later (usually in the run up to xmas) with the extra tracks on it! GRRR!

[Harvey2]

Hi Richard, you make a really good point about concert ticket prices compared to CD prices and I tend to agree with you about CDs generally getting cheaper although, the quality has slipped somewhat. Personally, I'm not interested in attending those BIG gigs which charge a fortune just to be able to tell your friends you was there but I do get to about one small gig a month at an average cost of about £15 (more often less than this). With the exception of Elvis Presley, I've managed to see most of my favourite artists over the past fifty years (bloody hell, where did the time go!) and all for a reasonable price. However, I noticed an item for sale in this month's Record Collector Magazine - an original concert ticket dated 29th May 1967 for a concert featuring the following artists; Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Pink Floyd, The Move, Zoot Money and his big roll band and Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band. The ticket price was £1 in advance or pay on the door! Concert scheduled to start at 4pm and finish at Midnight. Aah, those were the days.

By the way, I intend to post this message twice. Once in its standard issue followed by the deluxe edition featuring a few extra lines of twaddle.

[KenB]

While we’re talking about marketing, I noticed that my Nora Jones, Deluxe CD, “Little Broken Hearts” has 12 songs -- plus a separate bonus disc with 3 more songs, including a second version of one of the songs which was already on the main disc. It’s titled “Out on the Road” -- call it value added, if you like.

Here’s a sharp marketing strategy. A second version of this album called an LP (long play?) version was released on the same date without the 3 bonus tracks.

Finally, there is a vinyl release which is described presently on her website as 180 gram, double white, vinyl disc packaged with a bonus 2 by 3 foot poster. So how long before the re-mastered version appears?

Now we should remember, not every artist will get this multi-version-release treatment. Nora is special. Her sales are through the roof. I read somewhere she’s 28 million strong and counting. So that’s why we get choices.

On the other hand, some artists are literally giving their music away for free on their own internet websites and these bands hope to recoup their costs by living permanently on the road. The consumer’s choice is take it for free, or leave it. Such is life today. Maybe it’s safe to say the mega-buck signup recording contract days are gone forever. These blokes try to make a living on the road. Good luck with that plan.

So I think concert prices today reflect the fact that album sales are in decline and costs to get around with a full kit have risen enormously. Where will the money come from? Has to be ticket sales. But there is a limit. It can’t be easy anymore. Bet they want to bring back the good old days of the 60s and 70s.

[Arlene]

I was wondering if there’s any interest in doing our own album reviews? We could talk about picks of the best (or worst?) of the new albums we’re buying. Some opinions about what we’re currently hearing might help move things along. Just a thought…

FWIW, I think this is a GREAT idea and I look forward to reading the views of others. I wouldn't even mind if we started with some earlier releases from this year....

[Arlene]

For fans of singer-songwriters in the folkish genre, another new June album I’m enjoying is Antje Duvecot’s “New Siberia,” which won’t “officially” be released until September 18th but is currently available for download at her website, http://www.AntjeDuvekot.com. It was produced by Richard Shindell and features him, along with John Gorka, Lucy Kaplansky and Mark Erelli.