The Super-Duper Cheap Bargains Thread

[Fafner]

Surely it is Amazons decision on how much to sell them for, they buy a licence to sell not a licence to maintain a labels preferred pricing structure?

The UK amazon site is charging full wack well relatively 6.49 for 100 tracks

That's complicated.  Sometimes publishers explicitly forbid vendors like Amazon from offering too steep a discount.  This is a major issue with Kindle Editions of books.  But in any case, the publisher would presumably demand a certain price per track, which would practically prevent Amazon or anyone else for selling for less than that amount.  BIS sells these recordings for $0.99 per track.  Would they license the same tracks to X5 music group so cheaply that they could be sold for $0.02?  Maybe they would. 

[Brian]

BIS sells these recordings for $0.99 per track.

That's an assumption. They may be $0.99 on Amazon, but prices are variable on Classicsonline, and they're especially variable on BIS's preferred MP3 download site, eClassical, where prices are tied to track length. As you can see, some tracks are $0.22 and some are $1.82.

For the record, put me on the side of those who believe BIS is NOT involved in this effort. I believe this because BIS has their own line of ultra-cheap MP3 download sets at Amazon, which are marketed under the BIS label as actual BIS products. For example, this one.

[Fafner]

That's an assumption. They may be $0.99 on Amazon, but prices are variable on Classicsonline, and they're especially variable on BIS's preferred MP3 download site, eClassical, where prices are tied to track length. As you can see, some tracks are $0.22 and some are $1.82.

For the record, put me on the side of those who believe BIS is NOT involved in this effort. I believe this because BIS has their own line of ultra-cheap MP3 download sets at Amazon, which are marketed under the BIS label as actual BIS products. For example, this one.

Who knows, maybe this "X5 music group" is licensed to distribute these MP3 files for 2 cents each. 

For what it's worth, I sent an e-mail off to info@bis.se

To whom it may concern,

While browsing Amazon.com, I found a set of 100 MP3 tracks offered by "X5 music group" for only $1.99.  The set contains numerous tracks that (based on their labeling) appear to be premium BIS recordings (Martin Frost, Peter Oudijian, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Ronald Brautigam).  I was wondering if these recordings have been legitimately licensed for this release.

http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Supreme-Classical-Masterpieces-Masters/dp/B005VZR2I2/

[Brian]

Well I do hope they reply.

[stingo]

Seems X5 is a Swedish company and a poster on another forum was speculating about Bis' being an investor.

[Que]

Now, it's the turn of Amazon UK.

About 29 Pounds, without VAT

Not quite at the same price-point, but considering that you have to pay postage on a per-item basis (or not at all, if you can have it shipped for free), it's a better deal methinks.

Yikes! I missed it again... Aaarggghh 

But I'm not giving up.


EDIT: ooohhh - without VAT. You got me there, Navneeth!

I was already onto this one, which would be €44,14 all in for me. I'm still considering...

Q

[bigshot]

Another excellent recording on the Grieg set... Symphonic Dances by Ole Kristian Ruud and the Bergen Philharmonic. Spectacular sound and a lovely, sunny performance.

[bigshot]

According to Forbes magazine X5 Music Group is licensing stagnant back catalog and packaging it into collections that are rivalling the major labels.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisbarth/2011/10/25/how-tiny-x5-music-group-is-slaying-label-goliaths-on-the-billboard-charts/

The boss of X5 helped launch Amazon MP3 and set up over 10,000 digital licensing deals for them.

At emusic.com X5 and BIS are listed together as one company.
https://www.emusic.com/label/MP3-Download/416656.html

This stuff is legit and a stone cold bargain. Welcome to the digital age.

[kishnevi]

As far as I am aware, BIS uses its own production team for all recordings.  I have a lot of BIS recordings and do not know of any instance where they distributed recordings that they did not make in-house.  Some of the recordings included in the set are high profile enough that BIS released them on SACD. 

Labels like BIS can be small operations, and I doubt they have people scouring the internet looking for bootleg copies of their recordings.  In any case, I just sent an e-mail to the address BIS displays on their web site with link to the Amazon offer, asking if these are legitimately licensed.  Maybe they are.  That would be bad, because it would indicate a disturbing level of desperation at BIS.

A number of recordings by the Haydn Sinfonietta Wien which have been released by BIS are actually re-releases of recordings first issued by the Koch/Schwann label.  But BIS has remastered them as they have been re-issued, and explicitly notes what was issued by Koch/Schwann, with full recording details, in the liner notes for each recording.  So there's no question of which performance was recording by which label. I think the same applies to a few of the performances in BIS' Essential Sibelius and Complete Sibelius boxes.

[kishnevi]

According to Forbes magazine X5 Music Group is licensing stagnant back catalog and packaging it into collections that are rivalling the major labels.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisbarth/2011/10/25/how-tiny-x5-music-group-is-slaying-label-goliaths-on-the-billboard-charts/

The boss of X5 helped launch Amazon MP3 and set up over 10,000 digital licensing deals for them.

This stuff is legit and a stone cold bargain. Welcome to the digital age.

Brautigam's Mozart is 'stagnant back catalog'?

Legit and stone cold, yes, but I have to think there's more than meets the eye here.

[bigshot]

In today's market *all* Mozart recordings are stagnant back catalog. We may not like it, but you have to be realistic. Those BIS CDs linked above rank.from 35,000 to below 900,000 in sales at Amazon. The Beethoven Rise of the Masters ranks 297. That represents a lot of two bucks.

No one is buying classical music. How do you develop new customers for it? Loss leaders.

[Brian]

Brautigam's Mozart is 'stagnant back catalog'?

Same for Frost's Mozart, which I just bought new on SACD for $12.

[bigshot]

Frost's Mozart SACD ranks 165,000 in sales of music at Amazon... Except in the Rise of the Masters collection where it ranks 225 for music overall and #6 in mp3 downloads.

[Fafner]

The license of BIS recordings by X5 music group may turn out to be legit (I saw the Forbes article as well).  I also saw some complaints that the X5 music group mp3 files are very low bit rate, significantly lower resolution than the default Amazon download.  I suppose it could be part of a strategy which in which those casual downloads lead to sales of real classical releases.  The rational may be that such things do no harm.  There is an infusion of cash from people who make an impulse purchase of recordings they will probably never listen to, and those people would never have bought a classical recording in their lives anyway.

[bigshot]

I've downloaded several of the X5 sets and the bitrate is the same 256 VBR as all the other Amazon downloads. I played Grieg's Symphonic Dances though my main stereo system today and it blew me away. I'm enjoying the recordings I've listened to so far tremendously.

A friend of mine is 25 and has never explored classcal music before. I recommended these sets to him and he's filled his iPod with them. He's freaking out over the wonderful things he's discovering and wants to watch the Greenberg music appreciation DVDs I just got.

It's amazing how far one can go to not appreciate something that's really wonderful. Pull two measley bucks out and you'll find out too. The teeth of the gift horse are perfectly straight and shiny white.

If only classical music became mainstream again! Things like this help.

[Ataraxia]

A friend of mine is 25 and has never explored classcal music before. I recommended these sets to him and he's filled his iPod with them. He's freaking out over the wonderful things he's discovering and wants to watch the Greenberg music appreciation DVDs I just got.

You did a good thing there.

[bigshot]

If we don't pass it along, and if we make appreciating classical music look like some titanic hurdle, the whole thing will die. Popular isn't a bad thing.

[Ataraxia]

Agreed.

[Karl Henning]

... if we make appreciating classical music look like some titanic hurdle....

Strawman du jour

[eyeresist]

Schubert: Rosamunde Slovak Philharmonic Orch/Warchal - Spirited performance, great sound

Yes, I have a couple of Warchal recordings of Baroque sinfonias and concertos, released on bargain label Point Classics - excellent stuff. I assume they were originally on an obscure boutique label that went out of business.

What I don't understand is why you are so hot-to-trot about the referenced sets.  Perhaps they have value for newbies, but that's about it.

The point is that obscure, inexpensive performances can be just as good as big name major label performances. God know the latter have been responsible for plenty of junk.