Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Does anybody know the release pattern of Varese Club and/or Encore? Is it monthly, quarterly? Do they communicate in any way (I know they have a homepage and I check it on a regular basis)?

And, why is it that the Encore Titles for example, cost 15.98 at Varese and almost 22 dollars at other places like Intrada, SAE etc.

When Intrada releases a title, it costs the same at SAE, or a Lalaland release costs the same at Intrada and SAE. Why the high increase with the Varese titles?

Just curious.
Phil

PS: After watching the FIMUCITE DVDs from Varese I was really very, very very disappointed in the picture quality. On a level with VHS. Varese seems to have become fat and lazy. Especially compared to Labels like Intrada.

_________________
Last 10 purchased: LOCK UP PSYCHO II X-MEN DOFP NAKED GUN TRILOGY NIGHT CROSSING D.A.R.Y.L. GOLDEN NEEDLES BULLITT THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR THE BOOGEY MANDEEP EMPIRE OF THE SUN

Holy Grails: PSYIII/ESC TO ATHENA/M'RAKER/WILD GEESE II/NIGHTGEN

If we use past CD Club months as any indication (though it's fluxtuated over time), they're behind. Unless they double up on the next batch, we'll be short one batch this year. And if those limited edition re-issues were mneant to take their place (they were no CD Club), then I am, to quote "Red Dwarf", very cross. Very cross deed!


They don't communicate as openly, AT ALL, as LLLR, Intrada, FSM. Hell -- we get more communication from Quartet and the defunct Percepto.


Master tapes don't last forever, like that Rozsa one they have in perpetuity and won't release the original tracks to, and at the rate they do scores in CD Club batches, we'll all be dead and the master tapes deteriorated beyond use, by the time they get to the ones they own in perpetuity. They need to be realistic about this. I'm sure once upon a time when they started up, they did this all for the love of the scores. Now's the time to man up, recognize they can't do it all, and let it be about the music again and negociate with the lables.


I've been posting and reading the boards since about 1997, and I can tell you for a fact, the talk about the problem with Varese and the "in perpetuity" rights, was just not to be found back then, and now it's becoming more & more common. It's a bad fart that won't go away and it's putting a stain on the pants that is their company.

_________________
"Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself"
"Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages."
"Everyone votes for a dictator."
THE PRISONER

They do seem to be winding down, I rarely give them a thought these days. The idea of a Club batch every three months is long gone.

I usually find Varese to be low on expectation and high on disappointment.

Along with Terra Epon, I have reasoned that the other labels' stores sell Varese titles at markup prices because Varese grants them no price break. (Since as far as I know they also do not sell other labels' releases, Varese remains an "island in the stream" among that community.)

And like GloryConan, I also have noticed the drop in Varese CD Club output recently. With absolutely no insider knowledge, my personal suspicion is that they might have taken a serious financial hit from their SPARTACUS box set. With what seemed like such a lavish, expensive release (including video interviews and two extra CDs' worth of additional studio recordings), I wondered from the day I read its announcement whether the label would manage to sell 5,000 copies at such a high price. It's clear that their site has never announced a "low quantity" alert for that one; and I think it's been close to two years now.

Well, that's the connection which I now make to Varese seemingly cutting back seriously on other limited releases subsequently. (I hope money is the problem that has prevented the appearance of Goldsmith's THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER, rather than unusable or missing masters. I've been waiting for that since they delivered LONELY ARE THE BRAVE three years ago!)

I would'nt call Varese fat and lazy...

But they're not in the same great league as INTRADA and LaLaLand...
Nobody does it better than them...

# - Production Quality - both Sound and Design
# - Various Composer / Titles
# - Customer Service / Support
# - Shipping

Varese was a great company once,,, but with the last 3 years of limited releases I feel they've dropped the ball... especially in the sound department + choises of Composers and titles.

_________________
Most Wanted Unreleased scores:
Howard Shore's AN INNOCENT MAN (1989) Touchstone/Buena Vista
Richard Halligan's THE OCTAGON (1980) American Cinema
Sante Maria Romitelli's GOD'S GUN (1976) MGM/Cannon
Trevor Jones' FREEJACK (1992) Morgan Creek

Some people get touchy when you diss on Varese, but I totally think it's warranted. I like to compare them to Nintendo. At one point, they were the pioneers and then they just let the competition pass them by. I don't even bother with their unlimited releases. With companies like Intrada, LLLR and FSM releasing full scores in film order with 20 pages of liner notes, bonus tracks and gorgeous artwork for $20, I can't reason spending $16 on half a score and no liner notes. I just wait for those to show up at local Salvation Armies and Goodwills for $2, so then I turn to their limited editions. I bought Lonely Are the Brave, Matilda and Norma Rae about a year ago and loved them. I thought they were comparable to the other companies' releases, but then Varese came out with the Encore Series and my heart sank. In my opinion, the Encore Series is great for Varese and the worst thing imaginable for the die hard soundtrack collector. Varese gets an easy re-issue and makes a quick buck when it gets gobbled up in 3 days by resellers, but the die hard collector gets the same release as 30 years ago, only with 8 pages of liner notes. In no way, is it usually definitive. Best of all, you LITERALLY have to wait a month for them to ship it!

The worst part for me is that since they were the cat's meow back in the day, they retain the rights to so much good material so even if one of these other companies wanted to do a proper release of a score, they don't even get the chance. I don't follow this all enough to know who retains rights to what, but it just kills me to think great scores like JAWS 2, Dracula, the Back to the Future sequels, Enemy Mine, etc. will eventually get an Encore Series (a.k.a. non-definitive) release one of these days and that'll be the best release for the next five to ten years. However, with Intrada releasing North by Northwest and Battlestar Gallactica along with LLLR releasing 1941, Commando and Die Hard (all previously released by Varese), there is hope.

I know I've mentioned this a few times before and I'm sure there's a reason...

...but I've always wondered why Intrada, LLL, etc. couldn't license vintage titles from Varese the same way they do from Sony, UMG, etc. After all, "there's gold in them thar hills!"

For instance, sooner or later, the labels will have released every possible Goldsmith title with the only exceptions being the ones Varese owns in perp. (I fear a one-title gap in the complete Star Trek series with Nemesis suspiciously absent.)

While I have to imagine the title of this thread is meant a bit tongue-in-cheek, I wouldn't say they're being lazy, and I certainly don't see how they could be fat. This is a business, and while they may not be issuing every title we want, as quickly as we want, they have to do what works for them. Yes, we all love our CDs, but make no mistake -- the CD business is dying, even among collectors (where it's simply dying more slowly). The Encore series may be an easier-than-most way for Varese to get an infusion of cash, but I wouldn't call this laziness, simply a realistic way to stay afloat in this shrinking market. Yes, an expanded "Tai-Pan" might please some of us, but on the balance sheet, would the expense be justified?

I have no idea how "Spartacus" fared (though I will say that I loved it), but I don't know why everybody's so quick to assume it was a financial disaster for them. Here's what I do know: Some recent high-profile releases from other specialty labels have been fan favorites and money losers. One especially beloved release that may well sell out soon will never show a profit. I don't really feel like it's my place to name these projects, but the market is very, very tough.

Why don't they license out their back catalogue? They might, but they haven't so far. I suspect that the math of it is not so simple, and that another label might not be able to make it work to both pay Varese and the film studio to issue even a moderately high profile title (for us) like "Predator 2." But I'm just guessing at that. I'm also guessing that Robert Townson may have grand plans for a lot of these scores, but that with the current scores they're releasing and the back-catalogue/CD Club stuff, times goes by and they don't get done. Again, just a guess.

I don't think Varese is ever going to get fat on releases like "Crimes of the Heart" or "The Apparition."

_________________
Last 10 purchased: LOCK UP PSYCHO II X-MEN DOFP NAKED GUN TRILOGY NIGHT CROSSING D.A.R.Y.L. GOLDEN NEEDLES BULLITT THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR THE BOOGEY MANDEEP EMPIRE OF THE SUN

Holy Grails: PSYIII/ESC TO ATHENA/M'RAKER/WILD GEESE II/NIGHTGEN