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 Post subject: Sold out...
PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 4:03 pm 
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Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2005 3:48 pm
Posts: 2773
4/8/11

Sold Out...two words that carry a lot of weight. But there's some misunderstanding in the marketplace about quantity decisions made behind the scenes. So I'll ramble a little. Rambling is fun.

I read a letter yesterday from someone wondering why we didn't just make at least 2000 copies of TWO FLAGS WEST. The short answer is we made what we thought we could readily sell. The long answer is we made what thought we could readily sell. In other words, we took a guess. It's not rocket science. We have no crystal ball. We have experience and common sense and mostly we have limited resources to gamble with - which all amounts to the same thing... we guess. This time we guessed wrong. We didn't contract for enough copies. On the other hand, our warehouse is packed with wrong guesses that went the other way. Too many copies.

Unlike the norm years ago, most of the limited edition CDs we release today have their costs loaded up front, not in back. We often pay the royalties and mechanicals (publishing) at first signing, before the project actually goes into production. And all of the restoration, mastering, printing, manufacturing and packaging costs come on the front end as well. Whether we sell all copies or none, the costs remain. To err on the side of caution is far better than erring the other way.

That said, I don't like seeing something sell out in a matter of hours. I just can't always see it coming. Our Fox releases are especially tricky because we have significant overhead on those titles and the projects frequently involve music from films fifty or sixty years ago, where the market interest in scores of that vintage is especially small. We try to sort out why people dive after Friedhofer's TWO FLAGS WEST paired with the few surviving cues from a John Wayne picture called NORTH TO ALASKA and yet show little interest in a complete John Wayne western soundtrack for THE WAR WAGON or Friedhofer's THE REVOLT OF MAMIE STOVER. But we can't sort it out. People begged us for years to find a way to make 48 HRS. a reality... until we finally managed it. Then the audience turned out to be a lot smaller than we predicted. Yet when we did the same composer's lower profile project JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN, we moved more copies of it in a week than the former blockbuster has sold in months.

Jerry Fielding remains a favorite topic around here. In the era of LAWMAN and BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA we slowly built up a loyal following of about a thousand people. Subsequent releases boosted the audience upwards and we suddenly found that 1500 copies of a Fielding CD would sell out quickly. People got frustrated when they sold out and wondered why we didn't make 2000 copies instead. And so it played out until we increased the quantity on an expensive Fielding project from the elusive Universal vaults, GRAY LADY DOWN. The audience suddenly became fickle. And when we at last landed with Fielding's long-awaited and highly desirable STRAW DOGS, the results were baffling. We still have copies, albeit admittedly only some 40 or 50. But still. Where was our crystal ball when we needed it? THE BLACK BIRD brought us even more down to earth. All those folks shouting out how Fielding easily can sell 2000 copies... I guess they were a bit off the mark. Just like us. Leigh Harline is another tough nut to crack. People were excited about THE ENEMY BELOW but not so much his equally unrecorded - and arguably more important - score for PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET.

Try sorting this one out: Our Fox two-fer with scores by Leigh Harline and Lionel Newman (TRUE STORY OF JESSE JAMES & THE LAST WAGON) hit a chord with our target audience but a subsequent Fox two-fer with similar premieres by the same two composers (THESE THOUSAND HILLS & THE PROUD ONES) failed to strike a chord at all.

In a nutshell, for every instant seller there's a slow seller... followed by a non-seller. Multiply that by numerous labels all cranking out exciting (and sometimes not exciting) releases every week, all competing for your dollar... and you've got a warehouse full of guesses.

We'll continue doing our best to predict our audience, sign up for particular quantities and hope we don't lose money with misfires... but a guessing game it'll remain. We truly love chasing down the elements, getting licenses and putting up our own money to make stuff available for other people to enjoy. Since I mentioned the Fox stuff carries a certain overhead, I would be remiss if I didn't also point out that Fox remains the most dedicated studio working to not only preserve these elements but to also make them available for others to enjoy. It's really heart-warming to have Nick Redman ping me with a pair of old scores he's just managed to salvage. It's exciting no matter what label ends up delivering them to you folks. I buy 'em, too. Anyway, none of us involved in this expensive but thrilling enterprise - from the union and studios through the labels and their customers - have anything more to go on about predicting saleable quantities than hopes, prayers... and guesses. Which means we'll continue to see stuff old and new by the likes of Bronislau Kaper, Dimitri Tiomkin, Leigh Harline, Alan Silvestri and James Horner strike fire one week and barely smoke the next.

We try to help things stay somewhat predictable by having a reliable release pattern every other Tuesday, making announcements every other Monday, offering clues with Roger on the Forum each weekend prior, posting reminders in my blog here and stuff like that. We're hoping to coax you into making our site a priority destination as often as possible... or at least every other Monday evening when the announcements are posted so you won't miss out. Through it all I hope dedicated fans mostly manage to get what they want. There are certainly tons of releases coming out everywhere to keep you... and us busy!


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