"Tower Records, which has been hurt by corporate overexpansion and Internet downloading, ...." man, i _hate_ it when they toss crap like this into articles (the internet downloading part) in the boston area tower records was hurt by their stupid overpricing. there's a tower in burlington ma. that's physically located about a hundred yards from a newbury comics. newbury's prices consistently undercut tower but at least a couple of bucks...and many times even three or four dollars. i do admit that their jazz section was way better than newburys (which sucks in that department) but still...stuff would be 'on sale' for $15.99 from the 'regular' price of $18.99. screw that! -- Mark Saleski - marks@foliage.com | http://www.foliage.com/~marks "Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together" - Anais Nin
Again I read: 'Jazz has always been in the margins, with Coltrane and Monk selling 3,000 discs in their time.' or words along those lines. This belies the fact, that when you sell 3,000 records today, you're doing worse in a marketplace where much more cd's are sold than in the fifties and sixties. In Holland during the early fifties, families used to own five or six 78s, and during parties, everyone invited took theirs, in order to fill the evening. Musical information was obtained through extensive radio listening, and I suppose you knew the record collections of all your friends. So if there was one Monk recording, it was shared by an enormous amount of people, whatever they thought about the music. Today, you are chatting with people all overe the world, to be able to talk about the music you like ;-) my neighbours don't have the faintest idea what's in my record collection. Plus: wouldn't it be true that those artists selling 3,000 albums comprised far more than 3 percent of the whole gramophone output? Ofcourse, however we might nag about great gramophone recordings not yet released on cd, there has never been so much music been available to a large audience than today. So it is quite an accomplishment selling even one cd nowadays. regards, Remco
on 8/7/02 9:48 AM, Remco Takken at r.takken@planet.nl wrote:
Again I read: 'Jazz has always been in the margins, with Coltrane and Monk selling 3,000 discs in their time.' or words along those lines.
much less in monk's case. riverside bought his contract (fr prestige) for about $110.
This belies the fact, that when you sell 3,000 records today, you're doing worse in a marketplace where much more cd's are sold than in the fifties and sixties. In Holland during the early fifties, families used to own five or six 78s, and during parties, everyone invited took theirs, in order to fill the evening. Musical information was obtained through extensive radio listening, and I suppose you knew the record collections of all your friends.
markets are more segmented now, so, within the world of jazz, you're dealing with at least a dozen fractal markets -- smooth jazz, hard bop, avant-garde, standards vocal, modern straight-ahead etc. also, music -- which bombards us in our daily life -- is less important to the mainstream than ever before. people don't care about music because they never have to try to hear it. it's everywhere, and most of it is developed to facilitate an activity other than recreational listening -- there's dancing music, working music (ie muzak) etc, all scientifically designed to bring about the best results in the context of a non-musical activity. Music is no longer a foreground experience as it was in days of yore. Rather, it's out there as an enhancement to some other activity.
So if there was one Monk recording, it was shared by an enormous amount of people, whatever they thought about the music. Today, you are chatting with people all overe the world, to be able to talk about the music you like ;-) my neighbours don't have the faintest idea what's in my record collection.
I kinda doubt it. But if there was one Patti Page recording...
Plus: wouldn't it be true that those artists selling 3,000 albums comprised far more than 3 percent of the whole gramophone output?
either far more or far less. but trying to trace all the numbers for sales that small is nothing but a headache for even the stealthiest of researchers. there are so many CDs in the marketplace -- not counting vanity pressings or stuff just made for non-store sales (CDs that local bands press up for sale at the gig etc) -- that the under-3000 sales could really account for something. or the actual numbers are so pathetic that they don't even show up on the radar (and I suspect the latter). skip h np: sonny hopson -- orig 1969 philadelphia am radio broadcast (philly archives records)
participants (3)
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Mark Saleski -
Remco Takken -
skip Heller