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  1. Some interesting news from MMM - and a bit of a departure?

    Their website has announced a couple of upcoming CD releases (http://www.mmmrecordings.com/) - original soundtracks for The Blob and The Intruder. MMM's previous releases have been top quality and I'm sure that these new CDs will be worth looking into.

    Track listings:

    The Blob (1958, Ralph Carmichael) - http://www.mmmrecordings.com/The_Blob/the_blob.html

    The Intruder (1962, Herman Stein) - http://www.mmmrecordings.com/The_Intrud … ruder.html

    The main titles from The Intruder sounds great!!
    The views expressed in this post are entirely my own and do not reflect the opinions of maintitles.net, or for that matter, anyone else. http://www.racksandtags.com/falkirkbairn
    •  
      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeDec 23rd 2007
    I'm sure the releases will be top notch!
    listen to more classical music!
    • CommentAuthorMMM
    • CommentTimeMar 20th 2012
    No mention of our label in over four years! That's not good. Glad I just discovered this site, as you have a much more civil way of conversing than on a certain site in the States that is bent on the destruction of each and every poster! I hope I can contribute to some of the conversations here if anyone has questions pertaining to my area of expertise as a soundtrack producer, representative of composers and their estates, legal matters pertaining to film music and music in general, and especially classic science fiction and horror music. I also know which people in the business are crooks, but I'll keep that to myself for the time being...

    We just released (as of today) five new soundtrack CDs, so if anyone would like to check them out, you can click on the link and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. The releases are:

    SHIP OF FOOLS (Ernest Gold) [first release of original music tracks]
    KRONOS & THE COSMIC MAN (Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter) [2-CD set]
    THE MCCULLOCHS (Ernest Gold)
    ROCKETSHIP X-M (Ferde Grofe)

    Each release comes with liner books containing more information about the music, the composers, and more jokes than what you'll find in five other releases combined! (Okay, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but not regarding the jokes...)

    http://www.mmmrecordings.com
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeMar 20th 2012
    Welcome!

    Have you considered (and I mean this in the friendliest and most helpful way possible!) updating your website? A website that looks like it's from the 90s can put people off. A glossier website, I'm sure, will encourage more sales. Or at the very least instill more confidence in potential customers.
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeMar 20th 2012
    Welcome, MMM!
    I am extremely serious.
    •  
      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeMar 20th 2012 edited
    MMM wrote
    No mention of our label in over four years! That's not good. Glad I just discovered this site, as you have a much more civil way of conversing than on a certain site in the States that is bent on the destruction of each and every poster! I hope I can contribute to some of the conversations here if anyone has questions pertaining to my area of expertise as a soundtrack producer, representative of composers and their estates, legal matters pertaining to film music and music in general, and especially classic science fiction and horror music. I also know which people in the business are crooks, but I'll keep that to myself for the time being...

    We just released (as of today) five new soundtrack CDs, so if anyone would like to check them out, you can click on the link and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. The releases are:



    SHIP OF FOOLS (Ernest Gold) [first release of original music tracks]
    KRONOS & THE COSMIC MAN (Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter) [2-CD set]
    THE MCCULLOCHS (Ernest Gold)
    ROCKETSHIP X-M (Ferde Grofe)

    Each release comes with liner books containing more information about the music, the composers, and more jokes than what you'll find in five other releases combined! (Okay, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but not regarding the jokes...)

    http://www.mmmrecordings.com

    I know him and I give him my highest recommendation.
    Tom
    listen to more classical music!
    •  
      CommentAuthorErik Woods
    • CommentTimeMar 20th 2012
    Monstrous Movie Music was the first label to ever send me a promo for air play on my show almost 16 years ago! Welcome to the most friendly film music community on the planet!

    -Erik-
    host and executive producer of THE CINEMATIC SOUND RADIO PODCAST | www.cinematicsound.net | www.facebook.com/cinematicsound | I HAVE TINNITUS!
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeMar 20th 2012
    Welcome MMM beer
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
  2. Good to see you here MMM smile
    waaaaaahhhhhhhh!!! Where's my nut? arrrghhhhhhh
    • CommentAuthorMMM
    • CommentTimeMar 23rd 2012
    "Have you considered (and I mean this in the friendliest and most helpful way possible!) updating your website? A website that looks like it's from the 90s can put people off. A glossier website, I'm sure, will encourage more sales. Or at the very least instill more confidence in potential customers."

    Our web site is deliberately "old-fashioned." We release music from old movies. Our CD booklets are elegantly simple, with no flashy graphics, but with more new factual information in them than probably any soundtrack label ever. The writing is black text on a white background, with no eye-popping color changes and background images and high-falootin borders that give you a headache and make the read a difficult one. We are not about flash and being hip and modern. We are about putting out the best soundtrack CDs possible, whether they're new recordings or original soundtracks, and I'm proud to say that in 16 years we have probably gotten two complaints -- and if I recall, both of those people were obviously psychotic. If you read our reviews on our old-fashioned site, you will see that people seem to like what we do. And, no, we don't cherry pick the reviews. I don't think we've ever gotten a bad review in our entire history. Might I inquire as to whether you are familiar with our label, or merely familiar with our label's stodgy web site?

    Thanks for the wecomes. I hope to participate, but am in the middle of dealing with a rash of orders, and money always takes priority over conversation, except when somebody trashes our antiquated web site, which has taken me so long to get it just as stodgy and creaky as I wnat it to be. But other than that, I'm always open to criticism!
    • CommentAuthorMMM
    • CommentTimeMar 23rd 2012
    Oh, and if anybody is into classic sci-fi and horror film music (as I am), someone started a Facebook page devoted to such things, and made me an Administrator without telling me! It is not a stodgy Facebook page only because I have no control over the design. It is called "Classic Monster and Horror Film Music" and is located at:

    http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= … 186098352/
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeMar 23rd 2012 edited
    There's a difference between a website deliberately looking "old fashioned", and simply looking old. It looks like a website from the 90s, and that's not really the timeframe most of your releases appear to be from. It would be better, I think, if your website looked stylised rather than simply looking like it's stuck in the early days of Internet.

    I'm not trying to trash your website, and if your existing customers are happy with it, that's great! I just think you'd do well in a business sense to update your website a little (while retaining an old fashioned feel through simple stylised graphics). If you're running a business, these things are worth considering.
    • CommentAuthorMMM
    • CommentTimeMar 24th 2012
    Steven,

    You are welcome to design a site for us, and when you're done I'll take a look at it and see if it's the way we want to go. My 1990s site is all I can handle right now, as we're totally overwhelmed with orders of our five new CDs, so that means there are a lot of people out there who have no trouble putting up with our dilapidated look and ordering our CDs. Our reputation is that we produce some of the best soundtracks in the business and we put everything we can into all aspects of each release. Any time I spend in flashing up our web site is less time spent keeping the level of quality of our product where it's been all these years. But as I said, if you have time to spare, please design away and then show me the results. Maybe we can have everyone on this board vote "up" or "down" on it. Just curious, but have you bought any of our CDs? If so, were you able to use our site or did you order through some other site?
    •  
      CommentAuthorMartijn
    • CommentTimeMar 24th 2012 edited
    MMM, first of all: welcome aboard.
    Always good to see people from within the business engaging in discussion on all subjects with the "client base" (and fellow enthousiasts).

    However, you seem a little defensive on the subject Steven broached?
    Why is that? confused
    It was, as Steven clearly stated (and I read it as such as well), just some *friendly*and purely *positively* meant criticism.
    Helpful, in other words.

    If you personally feel the site is attractive enough to sustain your business needs, certainly no harm done, I would think, and more power to you.

    But why on Earth would you ask Steven to design a site for you?
    And why the clamour for a "public vote"?
    Steven ( a potential customer) gave his opinion to you (a professional). You can use that (to your advantage) or not, as you see fit.

    And surely nobody has commented on any perceived lack of quality on your actual product (the CDs; I can imagine getting defensive about those!). Just on your "calling card / front windows" (the web site).

    Again, if you feel the site works for your business, that is the bottom line.

    Incidentally, becore you ask me as well, yes, I *am* a customer. smile
    'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn
    •  
      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeMar 24th 2012 edited
    dizzy I'd advice taking into account potential customers' thoughts and suggestions and actually doing something that will benefit your work, instead of going into 'lack of publicity' rants and attacks on film music forums wink And i am not even a business man in profession.
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
    • CommentAuthorMMM
    • CommentTimeMar 25th 2012
    Because the first post I got basically was criticism. If I wanted that right off the bat, I could have stayed on "FSM." And telling a person he doesn't know how to do what's best for his business when I've been keeping the business alive for 16 years and I've been very successful at it, well, unless he's a professional who can prove to me that he can actually help take our business to even bigger and brighter places, then I'm just not going to see it as a very "welcoming" comment.

    I didn't hear anything that led me to believe that he knew anything about what we do and what our product is and who we market to (mostly 60-somethings who LOVE 1990's-looking web sites). I'm not perfect, but MMM has always strived for perfection, and we come pretty close most of the time. I guess I assumed (wrongly) that people would know me a bit. If they did, they would know I care NOTHING about image. NOTHING about being like anyone else. NOTHING about being compared to anyone else.

    It's all about presenting the music on CD in the most professional and complimentary fashion so we can spread the word about these great composers and the work they did. If I was really into making BIG sales and reaching huge segments of the population, would I really be releasing soundtracks like PROJECT MOON BASE and THE COSMIC MAN? Seriously. I'd be doing what many of the other labels are doing -- big films with name composers and huge followings. That is NOT what MMM has ever been about.

    So I guess I took the comments as seeming to come from somebody who had no idea at all about the company he was criticizing. Actually taste the chicken noodle soup before you write to Campbell's to complain about the fact that you don't like the flavoring. That's my motto. Although I just made it up right now.

    And I AM a businessman, and a pretty good one to boot. I represent the estates of a dozen film composers in addition to my own company, and I handle licensing, copyright infringements, royalties, etc. I've been a professional writer and promotional writer for 30 years, and I do lots of other things in the commercial world as well. So when somebody says something like "I'm not a professional businessperson, but I know what you should do," I probably won't listen to that advice. I will listen to the advice of professional businesspeople I know. And in all the years I've been in this business, that was the FIRST comment I ever heard from somebody telling me to renovate my website because I obviously don't know what I'm doing. I guess I hoped for the criticism to start maybe two weeks into joining this board? Perhaps that's the main problem. It's like the first time you go out with a girl. If you like her, you save the criticisms ("I am not crazy about your perfume," "I hate the fact that you only wear black," "Your mother is a demon!") until you shower her with compliments for at least ten dates. Not that I expected to be "kissed" on this first date, but being told that I'm creating a bad impression for all people visiting our site probably could have waited a few weeks. Maybe slip it in between "I loved SHIP OF FOOLS!" and "When are you gonna release DESTINATION MOON?" and I would have taken it in a better context.

    But seriously, I have NEVER had one criticism about our site in 16 years and that's the topic you guys seem to want to discuss on this board? No questions about the actual music or the composers?
    •  
      CommentAuthorMartijn
    • CommentTimeMar 25th 2012
    I guess the only reason we're still discussing it is because of the unexpectedly rather vehement reaction we got, MMM. smile

    I assume you're a nice bloke.
    Most of us here are too.
    If we (and I rather cheekily presume to speak for the community at large here) ask a question, it's because we're genuinely interested in the response.
    If we make a suggestion, it's because we genuinely think it has merit.

    Nobody here is interested in tearing anyone else down.

    From your words it's very clear you don't particularly worry about the business' presentation towards the outside world at large (i.e. those not personally familiar with you or the soundtracks you put out).
    Again, if that works for you (as it certainly seems to do), great!
    You have a clear view on your customer base and its needs and wants, so that's all fine!

    But why on earth should you become so defensive and personal if you really don't care (as you suggest)?
    You might have simply said something in the vein of "meh, it's just an outlet. Pay it no mind, unless you order", and nobody would have thought twice about it!

    Again, nobody here means ill.
    Mere words on paper (or on a screen as the case may be) may sometimes be taken completely differently from their intended meaning (the sad but inescapable side effect of communication without any type of metaclues like inflection, body language and what have you).
    And not everybody will follow the same cognitive and logical path you would have them.
    (Heck, in my own profession I have been questioned often enough about details I never in my wildest dreams considered germane...but that's life in a professional world! As criticism, both fair, just, dishonourable or silly always are. That's the price we pay for dealing with people. smile )

    So, I sincerely hope we can leave this false start behind us, and have some interesting conversations with your insights in the business and a type of film music that is - I would venture a guess- pretty barren territory to many of our regulars.
    'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn
    •  
      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeMar 25th 2012
    In defense of David and MMM he was one of the very first people to give me a chance at writing reviews after my stroke. The only complaint I've ever gotten from him is one time he had two films on a CD and I split them up deciding that each soundtrack deserved a separate review. At the time I'm sure he didn't realize what I had in mind. He has sent me rare material to listen to so I could write better reviews and is highly complimentary of all of the research I do which takes hours sometimes.

    His site works just fine so why bother to fix it? His market is very precise and his material sells well. I'm sure if he wanted criticism he could ask for it because there are a 100 Steven's out there. Maybe he'll want some help someday and I'm sure he'll ask for it.
    Tom
    listen to more classical music!
    •  
      CommentAuthorMartijn
    • CommentTimeMar 25th 2012
    Why should anyone clearly and explicitly not being attacked need defending?

    Let's move on, shall we?
    'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeMar 25th 2012
    sdtom wrote
    I'm sure if he wanted criticism he could ask for it because there are a 100 Steven's out there.


    I thought I was unique. sad

    Although I suppose when told to go fuck myself I have plenty of choice...
    •  
      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeMar 26th 2012
    MMM wrote


    But seriously, I have NEVER had one criticism about our site in 16 years and that's the topic you guys seem to want to discuss on this board? No questions about the actual music or the composers?


    He has a valid point but I've been talking about that for a long time. The last time I engaged in that type of discussion we know what the result was. I suspect a fair amount of readers don't know who Grofe is which really saddens me.

    Tom
    listen to more classical music!
    • CommentAuthorMMM
    • CommentTimeMar 26th 2012
    You are right about Grofe. What an astounding composer. The good news is ROCKETSHIP X-M is selling very well, so perhaps that will help spread the word about this important American composer/arranger/orchestrator?

    And so we can steer the conversation away from where it's been, because as sdtom stated, "His site works just fine so why bother to fix it?"...

    Here is a link to the web site of one of Vincent Di Fate, a dear friend and one of my cover artists. He did the extraordinary paintings for our ROCKETSHIP X-M and KRONOS covers. He is one of the greatest space painters of all-time, has won a Hugo Award for "Best Professional Artist," and he's a learned man and college professor, too. But his web site is even simpler and clunkier and more 1990s than mine.

    Since he's a brilliant artist in both the painty and digital realms, I would imagine Vincent would appreciate somebody telling him that he has no visual sensibilities whatsoever. Please feel free to write him and tell him David Schecter sent you to him!

    http://vincentdifate.com/biography.html
    •  
      CommentAuthorMartijn
    • CommentTimeMar 26th 2012 edited
    See, this I don't really get.

    MMM wrote
    And so we can steer the conversation away from where it's been, because as sdtom stated, "His site works just fine so why bother to fix it?"...


    Yay! punk

    ...but just one sentence later:

    ... his web site is even simpler and clunkier and more 1990s than mine.

    Since he's a brilliant artist in both the painty and digital realms, I would imagine Vincent would appreciate somebody telling him that he has no visual sensibilities whatsoever. Please feel free to write him and tell him David Schecter sent you to him!

    http://vincentdifate.com/biography.html


    *sigh*

    Well, you can't say I didn't try (as in "bend over backwards") to steer the conversation away.
    Apparently to no avail, as seemingly the bee in the bonnet keeps buzzing with a vengeance.

    But that's fine.
    Thread's all yours, MMM. smile

    wave
    'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeMar 26th 2012
    Also, old scores suck.

    popcorn
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeMar 26th 2012
    And I hate complete & chronological soundtrack presentations.

    popcorn
    I am extremely serious.
    •  
      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeMar 26th 2012 edited
    Well the old blokes at fsm they are, well old blokes; they couldn't actually see past the cd covers so far this is why we, here, a nasty gang focused on the audio-visual too and filled with youth, brought the subject up beer
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
    •  
      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeMar 26th 2012
    Steven wrote
    Also, old scores suck.

    popcorn


    A matter of opinion Steven. By the way Steven, Grofe was quite famous for his "Grand Canyon Suite" and orchestrator of "Rhapsody in Blue." I've linked a review of some of his material. The conductor was William Stromberg who conducted many re-constructions for Naxos and now has his own Film Tribute Classics label.
    http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2007/04/23/h … uitegrofe/
    Tom
    listen to more classical music!
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeMar 26th 2012
    Steven wrote
    Also, old scores suck.

    popcorn


    FALSE!
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeMar 26th 2012
    Thor wrote
    And I hate complete & chronological soundtrack presentations.

    popcorn


    TRUE!
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeMar 26th 2012
    Dang! Wrong thread shame
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt