# Any music industry insiders? A question....



## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

Here's something that puzzles me a bit. We read a lot about the imminent demise of the recorded music industry and the possibility that production and sales of CDs has become, not just unprofitable, but practically an economic impossibiity. And, it's true that some companies seem to be cutting back or even facing failure.

What puzzles me is that when I go to "ArchivMusic" and search for CDs by label, I come across companies such as Albany Records that seem have more than 1,000 CDs in print. And, the music Albany puts out does not by any means feature household name performers, orchestras or composers. Personally, I've enjoyed a number of discs from this company, including the music of George Lloyd that is hardly available anywhere else. Plus, they have twenty-one new releases in print since January 1, 2012.

How are labels like this able to keep going? Do they not have any paid employees? What kind of sales volume can they expect? Are they underwritten by some charitable institution?

Just wondering...


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I ran a small CD label for a while. If the recording is in the Public Domain, there's not a lot of overhead in putting out CDs. They can be manufactured in fairly small batches cheaply and sold at whatever rate the market dictates until the press run is gone. Boutique CD labels are often sideline businesses that distribute through an online retailer like Amazon.

There are Eastern Eropean pickup orchestras that will record anything you send them for a few hundred dollars an hour. No rehearsals and you get what you get, but they're professional. Lots of low budget TV and movie scores are recorded that way.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

That's interesting. That could explain some of what's available out there. Thanks.

Of course, Albany Records (and no doubt some other labels like it) probably wouldn't fit that description. Most of the stuff they record is with American ensembles and features music of 20th century and contemporary composers. I wouldn't imagine much (if any) of it to be in the public domain. What's particularly interesting about them is that so much of their old catalog still seems to be in print. The last George Lloyd disc of theirs I purchased, for example, was originally issued in 1993 and resissued in 2002, which version is still in print.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Albany's basic business model has been used by many boutique labels. Less expensive artists, regional ensembles and orchestras, simple distribution, direct sell, etc.

Programming is critical, preferably works with as little recorded competition as possible.


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## altiste (Jun 11, 2008)

I saw some CD sales figures for France recently (I think via SACEM) where even if they were down on previous years it was still hundreds of millions of euros (perhaps 400), so CDs are still being manufactured and sold. I presume the figure was arrived at by the declared value which would be easy for sacem to calculate. For example on paying the mechanical rights at time of manufacture one declares the number being replicated, copies being sold at x euros and copies being distributed as promotional copies. In reality, copies marked down in price afterwards, or unsold etc. would mean a lesser figure. These days, here, musicians are producing CDs to not only sell but give away as "calling cards".


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

For a few hundred dollars I'd almost consider having an orchestra record all of the unrecorded symphonies of Havergal Brian for me. 

But yeah, a lot of smaller labels can produce things relatively cheap. I know lots of local musicians and bands who are producing their own albums, sending them into a printing company and getting a 1,000 copies printed up with artwork and everything for around $100 bucks. Even at $5 a piece you only need to sell 20 before everything afterwards is profit, and usually the larger amount of copies you buy, the better deal you get. Now if you have the money to invest in a little bigger scale, you could definitely have a place in the market.

I think record companies really need to start looking at lowering their prices to stay in the market though. A new CD has been $15-20 for like the last 20 years. The CD market is obviously going away for much of the general public with itunes, etc. There will always be some people who will buy CD's, just like some people still buy LP's, but much of the current younger generation will just buy songs on their ipods or google music or whatever. CD's will probably turn more and more into collectors items. Maybe that's what their hoping for. 

You know a large record company like DG or Sony could easily sell CD's at $5 a pop and still make profit. I know a lot of people who say, for $20, I'll spend an hour or 2 online and download it for free or buy it on itunes for $9.99, but if it was $5, they'd buy it without question. 

I used to buy Naxos CD's from somewhere years ago. They used to send me like a newspaper catalog and I could buy almost everything in there for $4.99 and I bought a TON of them. Now most Naxos CD's on Amazon are $11, so now maybe I'll spend the extra $4 for a recording on DG featuring a world famous orchestra and conductor. The only thing Naxos and bargain labels still have (as mentioned above) is they record works you normally can't hear anywhere else.


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