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There's the music business, and then there's the classical music business...

Posted by John Marks (M) on August 23, 2015 at 10:22:46

In Reply to: Yes, I agree. posted by rbolaw on August 23, 2015 at 08:15:34:

I hear people say all the time that physical media are already dead, classical included.

I disagree. Now, for (no snobbery intended; I recommend Sonos and Pandora when appropriate) the "Pandora" classical listener, or an Internet radio listener who gets 100% of their listening online and they are fine with that, physical media might as well be dead.

However, for the deep-catalog serious classical listener to different versions of the same works, or new recordings of obscure works, I say not so fast.

I recently recommended Stanford's "Stabat Mater." If it is on TIDAL, there will be no credits or liner notes. Arkiv Streaming quotes a review, but not the liner notes, and credits are minimal. Now, those of us who remember pre-Vatican II Masses perhaps might not need texts and translations, but...

I particularly think that classical physical media have a future for choral, vocal, oratorio, and opera music, especially opera. Printable .pdfs simply don't cut it.

But the future does look very grim for performers who are not already successful or well-funded. Back when CDs were still new and booming, a moderately successful classical release might over its first two or three years hit 15,000 copies in all formats--LP, cassette, CD.

Today, a moderately successful classical CD might sell 2,000 copies (scanned at retail, not just shipped to a store or warehouse) in its first year and have hit not more than 5,000 units when sales eventually just drop off.

Which makes the classical marketplace very bizarre--Chandos' great new Rachmaninoff "All-Night Vigil" at $19.99 versus Decca's Solti Eagner "Ring" on 14 CDs at $39.95...

Can the center hold?

Nyet.

JM

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