The FSM "Too Many CDs" thread

I managed to read page one and have concluded you should either be awarded a medal of honour or be hit on the head with a soggy cucumber.

As with about 90 percent on the internet, people love doing much about nothing on a regular basis. Especially when A makes a point B doesn't necessarily wholeheartedly agrees about. Or when B feels bored and loves to provoke A, just because spending many hours of typing comments simply to make good use of the amendment of free speech seems like the better alternative than socialising with mums and family downstairs.

For example:

1) From FSM p.o.v., of course they should, it's sensible marketing. But they are posing this question to fans, which means they should answer with 'no', because heavens forbid that that obscure Goldsmith title no-one remembers, knows about nor want as long as it isn't released, all of a sudden, well, isn't released. It'll get noticed. And people will complain. Or if someone somehow managed to catch an obscure film on t.v. and spends the rest of his life waiting for it's release, isn't it wonderful that at least HIS need will be taken care of and he's capable of dying happily? If these kinds of people are now able of dying happy, then PLEASE, let them die. Happily.
2) Do agree, actually. Hooray!

It's incredibly easy now to spend the rest of the evening harassing you for your rather dumb and falsely stated opinion on matter 1. I won't, because I need to make dinner. But in short, people love complaining simply because they feel they should have a voice, since they are a consumer. And this is an excellent opportunity raised by a label that just loves it when people are talking about him. And unless this thread dies down soon, the same will happen over here.

That's rather my point, Justin: so what? And if mails get to be too insepid or inane (or simply too many in quantity), the DEL button is just one finger stroke away.

I can't be bothered to even venture into that thread (far too long) but it seems to me that the days of milk and honey for the film music labels are probably coming to an end. More people now refuse to play the "Christ, there's only 1000 copies, I must buy this immediately even though I've never even heard of it" game than before, and that number is growing. As soon as the studios start releasing these things on iTunes then that "must act now else I'll lose the chance" thing disappears. They need to adapt to that, and fast.

Regarding pressing more units than they said they would, I have no problem with that whatsoever, but it would only enforce the point above really (again "If I don't buy this now then I'll never get the chance again" goes out the window if there's an expectation that more copies will be printed should it sell out quickly).

But when I buy a CD, I do it for the music, not as an investment. If they say they'll print 3,000 and end up printing 5,000, I don't see the problem.

I really think that FSM, Intrada, and Kritzerland are offering a collectible product just like stamps, coins, trading cards, and other items. If they say 1000 it should stay at that. I would venture to say that if the CD with a limit of 1000 were $20 and a lossless download were $5 they would still buy the CD. At least many of them. They like to be able to go through their collection and boast what sort of value they have.
Thomas

Thank God i don't read fsm. I can't stand whiny people anymore in my life, be it online or 'real'.

Well we don't whine constantly at least

I have no idea what you're talking about.

I'm going to pull a Thor here and repost what I posted there:

FSM, for me, is still virtually the only label that is doing everything right. It's the only label that has proved again and again that it wants to spread the music to everyone as much as possible, and more importantly to keep it in print for not only everyone now to hear, but every new film music fan in the future as well.
So from my point of view, people that want to turn soundtracks into collector's items are rather selfish. I know what it is, I've missed out on Poseidon Adventure/Paper Chase and Towering Inferno, for instance, because that was only just before my time. And I just don't want that to happen to other fans and future fans. It should be about the music, not about bottlecaps. So I applaud Lukas for what he did: he kept the music available for the 'next generation'.

From this perspective, the problem is not FSM, it's the other labels - with let's say as a perfect example Mr ('I have foreseen this') Kimmel, who releases ALL of his CDs limited to 1000. (And yeah, I know, more obscure titles etc. but come on, even Man Who Would Be King or Taras Bulba?) Even though it would be less profitable in the beginning what with licensing being more expensive with larger pressings, I'm convinced that it would be very good for the hobby and market to press more copies in the long term.
By the way, everyone says Intrada has a good balance, but I don't agree. Look at their inventory: much too many titles (including many, many popular titles) are sold out, including stuff I'd like to buy now that even I either missed out on, didn't have funds for, or just wasn't interested in at the time. (My point being that it's not only the next generation that misses out on music, but even this generation, for different reasons.) Occasionally they do go beyond 3000 copies, but it's in far too few instances.

I applaud the idea of a label summit, but it should be decided there that every label should try and release more copies of the titles they release: preferably unlimited; if not possible then 3000 or more.
Most importantly: in this way you would completely take away the 'sneeze you lose' phenomenon, and people would buy and would BE ABLE to buy the titles they really want at the time they want. I agree there will be less profits in the beginning for the other labels, but I think it would keep the labels and the physical CD in business for a much longer time in the long term. And following this, there are not too many CDs no, there are too many limited edition CDs. So, of course I'm completely behind your proposal to go to 5000 to 10000 copies of limited editions, and thank you, again, for still trying!

At the same time I also realize it's probably too late to change the model and the mentality; that train has passed I fear. It might also be quite impossible to convince the other labels of this, and especially Varèse, who are probably the worst and who also really jumpstarted this limited edition craze, so of course I wouldn't blame Lukas to lower the number of copies you release for certain titles in order to keep afloat. It's a missed opportunity for the future of film music releases, and certainly for the future of film music releases on CD. It's the biggest mistake everyone made I guess.

Finally: Lukas should have kept quiet. He's only given the whiners another reason to whine.


sdtom's reply:

You can't call people that collect selfish. You can say that the system has flaws in it. I can assure you that if you get interested and involved in classical music you won't encounter limited edition material at all. Yes at some point a release will stop production but you usually have 2 or more years to decide if you want it or not. If the studio decided to wave any reuse fees you might see the ceiling change on some of the material we are offered. The download system is based on a pay as you go for the reuse fees which is a very fair way because it is a win win situation all around except for the collector who has nothing to collect. I somewhat liken it to a portion of my cassette collection which were tapes friends made of some of their lp's for me. I had the music which was all that mattered. Not producing the hard copy takes away from the collecting market thus Kritzerland, Intrada, and others lose out and the limited number is merely a selling tool. I would seriously doubt that the cd sales would slow down if technology offered a superior recording on download that couldn't be duplicated on cd, thus the download will offer a better recording at a lower price.

The ideal situation for a collector who does like to listen is to either buy two copies, keeping one sealed of course, or obtaining a cdr to listen to and keeping the seal intact. A % of these people never frequent this or any board and just collect and boast to their friends.

Thomas

Yes, but as silly as the replies are online or e-mail, Lukas, Gerhard, and Roger have shown again & again they can't seem to ignore them over get over them. Some dumb comment that turned out to be false, mis information, or just plain attack on the label for releasing something in complete form.

I don't know.


Makes you kind of wonder what titles at other labels, sold way more than the announced limited amount?

Yeah that might be confusing, having your answer actually within my original post.
It's like I have a split personality,... which he does not!
(I changed the colour for clarity's sake.)

Just wanted to add that I don't think all collectors are selfish, but I do think that some of the FSM posters are, for whining about 3000-limited edition copies that went over the 3000, instead of being happy that more people can now listen to the music. Collecting music is not the same as collecting 'bottlecaps' or so, where it is truly about boasting and comparing to other collections. The only people that might have hurt are the eBay speculators, and there's only joy to be found in that.
I don't think there are that many people who buy these soundtracks in it just for the collecting; it has to be a serious minority; the business is not going to fall over them not trusting a producer anymore. But on the other hand, most people do in fact collect, in the sense that they collect the music they like, and often become completist regarding one composer or another. Those people should be glad that more people are enjoying the music they have; it's what we do here too ("hey, that CD is great, buy it!" "ok, thanks for the great recommendation." etc.). If those people suddenly find that they are entitled to the music because they were by chance online at the time before it sells out, and don't want people that were too late to own and listen to that music (not only in Lukas's case, but also in the case of reissues), well, that is what I take issue with.