Why do record labels mess with us?

[Scarpia]

I am thinking of a few recent instances where record labels converted my enthusiasm to annoyance, and put me off purchasing their products.

The first instance, DG's Argerich Edition.  Volume 1, complete solo piano on DG, a wonderful release, complete with disc sleeves that duplicated the original album jackets.  Volume 2, complete concerto recordings, again, a wonderful series of recordings.  Then the problems start, Volume 3, entitled "Chamber Ensembles."  I was delighted, until I realized that they excluded all chamber ensembles that included piano and a second non-piano instrument (i.e., no violin sonatas, cello sonatas, etc, but piano duets are included).     Why are violin sonatas and cello sonatas not chamber ensembles?  The set is mostly 2-piano pieces of limited interest.  Ok, maybe the sonatas will in volume 4.  But volume 4 has just been announced and is a collection of albums on Philips in which she appeared, and includes pieces in which she doesn't even play.  How long are they going to drag this out?  They've brought me from anxiously awaiting the rest of the series to ripping the ones I have and selling them off.

The second instance, Chandos' Weinberg edition.  I have every disc in the series, but the latest installment only has one 30 minute symphony on it, and a 17 minute filler, the forth suite from some ballet I've never heard of.  Again, how long to they plan to string me along?  I've gone from anxiously awaiting the next installment to having no interest. 

[eyeresist]

EMI have reissued the Furtwangler RAI ring - in the 20-year-old digital mastering. What's the point?

[Mirror Image]

I have to agree with Scarpia here, especially regard to the Argerich sets. I bought the first two volumes and the third volume just seems like a bad joke to me. I'm sorry, but chamber works include all ensembles she has played with on DG. I have completely lost interest now, but at least I have two outstanding volumes that have served me well.

This is such a vast subject as so many labels have let great recordings go out-of-print that it would take too long to list all the recordings here.

[Lethevich]

Chandos are quite the experts at this - they also have a habit of placing "volume 1" on the front of a CD cover to attract purchasers, then never recording a volume 2.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

EMI have reissued the Furtwangler RAI ring - in the 20-year-old digital mastering. What's the point?

That could be blamed on the master tapes themselves, not EMI. Early tape doesn't always age well and this is a very old Ring.   

[The new erato]

I have to agree with Scarpia here, especially regard to the Argerich sets. I bought the first two volumes and the third volume just seems like a bad joke to me. I'm sorry, but chamber works include all ensembles she has played with on DG. I have completely lost interest now, but at least I have two outstanding volumes that have served me well.

This is such a vast subject as so many labels have let great recordings go out-of-print that it would take too long to list all the recordings here.

Vol 3 was the only one I was interested in (and it's delightful), because of the comparatively rare repertoire. Vol 1 & 2 doesn't interst me much as it contains stuff I have in spades, both by Argerich and others.

[Brian]

Chandos are quite the experts at this - they also have a habit of placing "volume 1" on the front of a CD cover to attract purchasers, then never recording a volume 2.

I guess it's all about the money, isn't it? They can make more - or at least, they can lose less - by selling 50 minutes of recording for full-price than 70 minutes. And if Vol. 1 only sells to us GMGers, then they won't want to do a Vol. 2.

I just got a Brilliant reissue, Niels W. Gade's Novellettes, that comes to 43 minutes. It's a licensed recording from the '80s, but still.

Another thing which bothers me about labels like EMI is that they do one series of budget reissues, then put it out of print and reissue the exact same recordings in another series of budget reissues. There was "Great Recordings of the Century," then "Encore," then "Masters," and they also have stuff like the new 20th Century line of twofers. Michelangeli's Ravel concerto has appeared in no fewer than three separate budget reissues since 2000. Why?

[DavidW]

Another thing which bothers me about labels like EMI is that they do one series of budget reissues, then put it out of print and reissue the exact same recordings in another series of budget reissues. There was "Great Recordings of the Century," then "Encore," then "Masters," and they also have stuff like the new 20th Century line of twofers. Michelangeli's Ravel concerto has appeared in no fewer than three separate budget reissues since 2000. Why?

I think Scarpia said something about this on another thread, EMI makes a run and when it's through the recording is oop again.  Probably cheaper than keeping the recording in print continuously for an extended period of time.

[Grazioso]

This is such a vast subject as so many labels have let great recordings go out-of-print that it would take too long to list all the recordings here.

Supraphon and Dacapo in particular drive me nuts doing that: every time I hear about a recording from them that sounds interesting, I find out it's OOP  Ergo, I have very few of their discs on my shelves.

This phenomenon irks me above any other record label sins (unfinished series, bad/absent notes, poorly conceived box sets, bad packaging, re-re-releasing the same warhorse recordings year after year instead of giving us something new and interesting). I can't count the number of times I wanted to buy a recording only to find it's now unavailable. Do they want my money or not?

[DavidW]

I think that record labels should follow Hyperion's example and make their catalog available for purchase in flac and mp3.  Even if you can't afford to keep cds in print, you can give us a chance to pay for a digital download.  Scarcity doesn't make sense in the digital age.

[mc ukrneal]

I think that record labels should follow Hyperion's example and make their catalog available for purchase in flac and mp3.  Even if you can't afford to keep cds in print, you can give us a chance to pay for a digital download.  Scarcity doesn't make sense in the digital age.

Yes, this is ideal for sure. Hyperion do so many things that would be a model for others. Chandos may do this as well (at least for some older issues) as they have a download option on their sites. But it would be nice to have this become the standard of the industry.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I'm not greatly disturbed by the lack of liner notes or libretti. A lot of this information is available online or from printed sources like books and scores. In fact I never understood why some companies commission a set of notes from one writer in one language, and then instead of translating the notes into another tongue, they print a whole different set of notes from a different writer in another language.

Packaging gets ridiculous at times. No one should have to pry a disk out of its jacket. My Harnoncourt Beethoven symphony series has such a complicated box that it never shuts closed properly after I pop a disk out of its slot. The 60-CD Bach cantatas series by Harnoncourt/Leonardt is a wonderful bargain, but to fit six CDs in a 1-inch wide box, the tabs on the holders are not as long as usual, meaning that the discs are always falling loose off their tabs.

One of the worst-treated conductors has been Robert Craft, whose CBS recordings of the 2nd Viennese School from the 60s were often scrappily played but excitingly conducted in a way I've rarely heard matched. A few years ago Sony reissued Craft's Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet from the Chicago Symphony - a blazing performance - but though they included the Schubert-Webern dances from Craft's old Webern set, they omitted his Bach-Webern Ricercare, a performance that is unsurpassed in my experience. And I don't think anybody has topped Craft's old versions of Erwartung, Pierrot, Berg's Der Wein, and more. The 2-LP set of Carl Ruggles's complete works is another badly in need of digital transfer.

[Lethevich]

Packaging gets ridiculous at times.

Ugh, this reminds me of a silly thing I had to deal with recently. I don't look forward to supposedly "luxury" or artistic digipak issues as they are often so much less functional than a bog standard jewel case and booklet. I encountered a most annoying gripe was with this disc.

It comes with a sizable booklet, but it is glued onto the foldout tray, and because it's on the inside of the left flap, you cannot flick through it with your right hand, and the spine is on the left side where the digipak ends, so the only way to browse it with comfort is with your left hand, flicking from back to front, Japanese-style. I don't know whether this is ignorance or contempt, but it's such a horribly poor decision.

[Gurn Blanston]

Ugh, this reminds me of a silly thing I had to deal with recently. I don't look forward to supposedly "luxury" or artistic digipak issues as they are often so much less functional than a bog standard jewel case and booklet. I encountered a most annoying gripe was with this disc.

It comes with a sizable booklet, but it is glued onto the foldout tray, and because it's on the inside of the left flap, you cannot flick through it with your right hand, and the spine is on the left side where the digipak ends, so the only way to browse it with comfort is with your left hand, flicking from back to front, Japanese-style. I don't know whether this is ignorance or contempt, but it's such a horribly poor decision.

In re digipaks, I am still irked that my Brilliant Clementi sonatas collection starts out with 3 digipaks and then continues with 2 chubby jewel boxes.

And that my BIS Haydn collection comes in 3 or 4 different iterations of the jewel box, and none of them match each other worth a damn, except for all having a black spine which is difficult to read.

A set is a set, dammit.

[DavidW]

On packaging just wanted to say that I love the faux-lp sleeve packaging Harmonia Mundi used on the Handel concertos.

[canninator]

Packaging, booklets, digipaks etc. I don't care, I rarely read the booklets so just as long as it opens and shuts and gives me track listing, recording date, and (if possible) identifies the instrument, I'm happy.

BUT...

there is one thing that really winds me up and this is packaging where the central plastic CD holder grasps the disc with a tetanic death grip making me fear for the disc as I have to bend it to remove it. I once had a disc (a vihuela recital) from Glossa arrive. It was so wedged on to the plastic central holder the disc snapped the first time I tried to remove it.

[The new erato]

Because they can?

[Gurn Blanston]

Packaging, booklets, digipaks etc. I don't care, I rarely read the booklets so just as long as it opens and shuts and gives me track listing, recording date, and (if possible) identifies the instrument, I'm happy.

BUT...

there is one thing that really winds me up and this is packaging where the central plastic CD holder grasps the disc with a tetanic death grip making me fear for the disc as I have to bend it to remove it. I once had a disc (a vihuela recital) from Glossa arrive. It was so wedged on to the plastic central holder the disc snapped the first time I tried to remove it.

I agree. it's all well and good to say "you just push down on the center of the spines with your index finger and it will fall right out". Bullshit. I haven't actually broken one, but I've come very close. Also, when the disk is bent to that extreme, I wonder if the stress mark will deform the "track" to the point where it damages playback.

[Superhorn]

    Another problem is impossibly small print in many CD liner notes and translations of opera librettos.I know,
    there's not a lot of space compared to LPs, but this is very annoying. I have a magnifying shert, and this
    has come in handy many times.

[Scarpia]

I guess it's all about the money, isn't it? They can make more - or at least, they can lose less - by selling 50 minutes of recording for full-price than 70 minutes. And if Vol. 1 only sells to us GMGers, then they won't want to do a Vol. 2.

I have no problem with the profit motive.  But that Weinberg disc didn't make them any money from me.  I ain't getting it, and although I may be attracted to subsequent issues, but the urge to complete the series has been abolished.  I'm certain they lost money they would have gotten from me if the latest release had a sensible program.