Are Blue Note RVG's overpriced?

[Quincy]

A couple of short RVGs that jump out at me are Go! and Bud!

Must be the exclamation points!

What sayest thou, Mr. Killowatt?

There was a watt-er lot of voltage in your post JSngry. He must be too shocked to reply.

When a Texan starts talkin' like Shakespeare, I'm shocked all right!

[David Ayers]

Interestingly the price of RVGs was reduced, here in the UK, earlier this year,. They were 'normally' £10.99 ($19) and came down to £7.99 ($14). Sale prices of course are lower, sometimes £5 ($9).

In case this seems high, remember that this includes sales tax at 17.5%, and the dollar conversion reflects a currently unfavorable exchnage rate (for the dollar I mean).

That said, the UK prices have always been the highest, and I imagine that the reduction (Sony made a similar reduction) was a response to falling sales due to market saturation and people buying abroad over the internet. So maybe they were overpriced...

[margolbe]

I think that some of you are missing the point of my question.

In classical music, there are collectors as fanatical as in jazz. The RCA Shaded Dogs, the Mercury Living Presence, The DG Originals, the classic EMI recordings of the 60's and 70's and the classic Decca recordings are as fiercely coveted as the RVG's among jazz collectors. Yet, in each of these mid-priced editions, the respective record companies (EMI included) have chosen to have these discs include enough material to come out at 60-70 minutes on average. The point is why can't EMI do the same thing with the RVG's?

[couw]

because RVGs are reissues of albums, not collections of as much material as will fit on a disk.

[Dan Gould]

couw has hit it on the nose

[gnhrtg]

I think that some of you are missing the point of my question.

In classical music, there are collectors as fanatical as in jazz.  The RCA Shaded Dogs, the Mercury Living Presence, The DG Originals, the classic EMI recordings of the 60's and 70's  and the classic Decca recordings are as fiercely coveted as the RVG's among jazz collectors.  Yet, in each of these mid-priced editions, the respective record companies (EMI included) have chosen to have these discs include enough material to come out at 60-70 minutes on average.  The point is why can't EMI do the same thing with the RVG's?

A true statement overall, but there are definitely more than a few exceptions - still exceptions they are, but, for instance the Beethoven Violin Concerto by Perlman/Giulini on EMI GROC or Pollini/Italiano Brahms Piano Quintet on DG Originals are both around 45 minutes.

And yes RVG's are re-issues of albums - DG Originals and EMI Groc's mostly compile material, usually selectively to make a meaningful whole, from two LP's.

Edited June 22, 2004 by gnhrtg

[Stefan Wood]

For those classical labels you mention it is easier to compile longer cds according to artist or theme. Dances of Death conduced by Parray on Mercury is an example. The title is just an umbrella to include tracks from a couple of lps. It is a bit harder to justify cramming a jazz cd the same way, unless there are unissued tracks from the same session(s). Fantasy doubles up, sure, but a lot of times at the expense of deleting a track, which most jazz fans hate. So no, I don't think RVGs are overpriced.

[Dan Gould]

Its apples and oranges and there's absolutely no validity to the claim this person is making.

[JSngry]

A couple of short RVGs that jump out at me are Go! and Bud!

Must be the exclamation points!

What sayest thou, Mr. Killowatt?

There was a watt-er lot of voltage in your post JSngry. He must be too shocked to reply.

When a Texan starts talkin' like Shakespeare, I'm shocked all right!

Get thee to a winery!

[chris olivarez]

I'm right behind you.