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Your comments on limited editions is helpful. If nothing else, it lets me keep my finger on your collective pulse.
Trying to explain the inner workings of all of this stuff is mostly futile. Not because you folks don't understand economics and licensing and whatever, to the contrary you guys are sorting all that stuff out just fine. It's futile because there just isn't a perfect solution to the problems that can arise with limited editions.
Some people may have forgotten but we've been working with these issues all the way back to 1985, when we negotiated our first deal with MGM and the musician's union to release RED DAWN. We were one of the first companies to establish a limited edition model. A lot of labels have followed. Many of them have 1000 copy releases. Some of them, like the recent (and exciting) Media Score label have lots of stuff limited to just 500 copies, in fact. Others, like Lakeshore, instead limit sales to short periods of time without packaging things by a specific quantity. Another cool label, Digitmovies, typically just indicates stuff as being limited and leaves it at that. Today, the marketplace is packed with exciting product. Of course, that can be a problem, too. But I'd rather have lots to choose from than go back to the "dark ages" when all of this music was simply unavailable.
You guys have given me plenty of suggestions and I'm enjoying going through the messages and comments and whatnot. Okay, most of them. When I read that we should stop issuing music by old composers or whatever, I cringe. I'll never stoop to being a judge of what music is worthy of release. You guys get to do that yourselves, by voting with your wallets. Personally, I think old scores by Leigh Harline and new ones by James Horner both have validity. I'm not interested in telling you which ones to support. That's your choice. I'm more interested in trying to release both. Anyway, I welcome the discussions. Roger and I'll spend plenty of time talking about them.
Offering subscriptions is one of the common suggestions but, believe it or not, we've got more people telling us they don't like the idea. So for the moment, it's still just one of several options that would please some collectors, dis-please others.
By the way, for those that queried. Yes, many of our licenses do lock in specific quantities. THE DELTA FORCE had a built-in limitation of 1000 copies. Other licenses, like our ones with UMG, require 3000 copies no matter what the project, be it John Williams or Alan Parker. (When you see some label issuing 3000 copies, it may not necessarily be because they're predicting sales of 3000. They may just be thankfully honoring an obligation that allows the project to happen, whether its profitable or not.) As to the economics, we often have to pay all costs up front, from initial editing through manufacturing, right down to the final royalties and mechanicals. That puts on a lot of pressure to keep our pressing quantities in check and move the product as quickly as possible. We certainly don't limit quantities to prevent people from getting their music and we're not getting rich at it because we're just funneling everything into more projects. (If there's something left over, we just head overseas, record something like JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS or SPELLBOUND and blow it all anyway!) But it's a system that licensors and unions and labels have all been collaborating on (or fighting over) for decades to make a reality. In some cases, like with the incredible Tadlow label, the decision to release limited quantities has nothing to do with the unions and licensors but simply boils down to economic reality: world-class albums like GUNS OF NAVARONE and EL CID aimed at small and fickle audiences still may need limited edition incentives to help generate sales.
That last part, about the small and fickle audience, really can't be spotlighted enough. Some collectors generously support everything to help keep the wheels turning, other collectors support as much they can but have other mouths to feed, still others support just what they need but are pleasant about everything and still others support almost nothing and stay unpleasant - yet all of them participate in a core "community" that holds from about 500 to about 3000 members. Predicting which of those members will go for any given release and making considerable financial investments for everyones benefit is a big gamble. (No pun intended.) Notwithstanding my joys in releasing Jarre's score and having it sell out, the rewards in this business are seldom financial. They're most often simply the nice letters from supporters who may have just enjoyed having one of their own previously unreleased favorites finally become a reality.
It no doubt sounds corny but that's still the best reward for me since I got together with a couple of guys and started up a label more than two decades ago.
Just a closing footnote, personal perhaps, but appropriate to my last comment. My friend and very first Intrada partner - Mark Newton - sat with me one afternoon, before our business was even born. He mentioned his own all-time favorite album goal was seeing a complete soundtrack to THE ENFORCER get released someday. As young as he was, he never lived to see it happen. But it did, on the totally awesome Aleph label. As a limited edition, no less! Who could've predicted that we'd someday have all of this once-forbidden fruit finally available for us all to choose from?
--Doug
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