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Recording of Raff's Samson

Started by Mark Thomas, Friday 01 October 2021, 08:06

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Ilja

Nothing unusual, I think. Full-price is for hardcore enthusiasts, and after a few months the price is reduced somewhat to make the set more attractive to more opportunistic buyers. Which in practice means that the first group pays a surplus on top of the "real" price. It happens in other sectors as well; compare it to hardcover and paperback book releases.

Mark Thomas

Yes, that's true, but it is such a shame that the recording isn't available domestically in the UK or US, for example. That has to impact sales.

Ilja

Yes, that's a shame. From their web site it seems that Schweizer Fonogramm (mostly a two-person side project from what I can gather) focuses mainly on the internal Swiss market, which seems to make international sales a secondary consideration. Which, if true, seems somewhat short-sighted.

John Boyer

JPC ships to America at a nominal cost.   That should cover the distribution problem, especially in the absence of brick-and-mortar stores.

Justin

Graziella and Fred have been great in keeping us updated on their projects and the customer service is great. They deserve success for that quality too.

Alan Howe

I wonder how many US orders jpc actually ships? I'm afraid I think that discounting (by 25%) after only a matter of months means the set isn't selling. If that's true, it's a real shame. The recording deserves better.



John Boyer

With the passing of physical stores, the need for distributors in target nations has passed as well. If you're ordering everything on Internet websites, it doesn't matter where the websites are hosted.

And just as stores have disappeared, so have mainstream websites like Amazon stopped serving the needs of record collectors. If you're into classical music at any depth, where you know who Raff was and take chances on him, you are going to know about sources like Presto or JPC.  You will know about Musicweb International or Fanfare; you'll know about how to obtain music in the current world.

So not to worry.  As Ilja pointed out, rapid discounting is common enough at JPC. 

John Boyer

...and I was about to write, "Perhaps they'll read about it in 'Opera News'," but I see that went the way of so many monthlies a year ago.  Oh, dear.

Alan Howe

The problem, though, is the relatively low 'profile' of the recording which appears only to have garnered one English-language review (outside of this website), is available through only one international retailer (jpc) and is now being heavily discounted. I wonder whether Dave Hurwitz knows about it, for example?

Gareth Vaughan

I wonder if he has been sent a review copy.

Alan Howe

That's a very good point. After all, he has a YouTube audience of 45,500 (subscribers), plus (presumably) many further casual viewers.