What was the retail price of Lps in the early '60s?

[medjuck]

Just finished The Jazz Loft book which I highly recommend. In it the author talks about most Lps costing $1.99 or $2.99 in the early '60s, but my memory is that the standard list price even in the late '50s was

$3.99 (mono) and $4.99 (stereo). Of course I may remember wrong or the prices in the small Canadian town I grew up n may have been higher than elsewhere. Anyone remember or have some old ads?

[carnivore]

In the mid to late 50s in New Zealand and Britain 10" LPs were 22/6 (i.e. One pound,two shillings and sixpence) and 12" were twentyfive shillings.

[GA Russell]

medjuck, my memory is the same as yours.

But I remember once reading in Time Magazine, "Only suckers pay list price." In New Orleans the LPs were discounted a dollar. One store sold monos at $2.59 and stereos at $3.59.

I know that they were discounted even further in Washington, DC, where there was one level fewer of middle men. (For example, in 1968 in Washington, stereos went for $2.89.)

[Dave James]

FWIW, around 1966-67, American new release pressings were $3.98 although occasionally, you could get one for $2.98. I recall buying It's A Beautiful Day's Marrying Maiden at that price. Upscale English LP's ran $5.98. I know because I still have the English pressings of Nick Drake's Bryter Later and Pink Moon with the price tags still on the covers. This was in Portland, Oregon.

Edited December 27, 2009 by Dave James

[BillF]

My copy of Monk's Music on Riverside, bought in 1967, still bears the inscription 41/-. Imported American albums were particularly expensive.

[JohnS]

When I started buying in the mid-fifties records produced in the UK cost between 30 shillings and just over 2 pounds in the currency of the day. Most US jazz appeared on The London (Atlantic and others)and Vogue (Pacific Jazz and Contemporary) labels at around 32 shillings and if I remember correctly Esquire which issued Prestige was a little more expensive. The most expensive was Columbia's Clef series at just over £2.00. Imports were hard to get then due to import/currency restictions but they were around 45 shillings. 30 shillings = £1.50.

Great days of discovery!

[The Rep]

I can remember LP's costing between £1.50 and £2.00 but I got very excited when you got special offers and a 99p sticker was stuck to the sleeve.

Edited December 27, 2009 by The Rep

[Big Beat Steve]

FWIW, over here in Germany the "list price" for 12in LPs most often was 17 or 19 "Deutschmarks"(DM) in the very early 60s. Prices seem to have been rather more uniform and in line with catalog "list prices" in many shops (I have quite a few late 50s/early 60s LPs still with their 19 DM price pencil-written in a corner of the sleeve or indicated on a price tag) and special offers or downmarked prices were comparatively rarer than from, say, the mid-70s when I started buying LPs. Typical EP prices were 7,50 DM in the early 60s. And this at a time when the hourly wages of a skilled worker were about 3 DM! Little wonder so many period "Eurojazz" LPs are that rare.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

In Britain, in the early 60s, British major labels' pop/jazz issues (London, RCA, HMV, Pye, Philips etc) were 32/- (now GBP1.60). Classical issues were 32/10 (now 1.64). Riversides, as Bill says, were 41/- (2.05). Blue Notes were inordinately expensive at 57/6 (2.85).

Soon after Liberty acquired Blue Note, a Blue Note office was opened in Britain (1967), headed by Doug Dobell, and the price of Blue Notes fell to 45/- (2.25) By that time, the general price of British manufactured LPs had risen to about 37/6, so the differential between BN and other jazz material was significantly reduced.

For America, my 1967 Schwann gives the following prices

Atlantic 8000 series 4$.79

Atlantic 1200/1300 series 5.79

Blue Note 12" mono 4.79 stereo 5.79

Blue Note 10" 4.00

Columbia CL/CS 4.79

Contemporary mono 4.98 stereo 5.98

Everest 5000/1000 series 3.98

Everest 6000/3000 & 9000/8000 series 4.98

Liberty 3000/7000 & 6000/7700 series mono 3.79 stereo 4.79

Liberty 2 rec sets mono 4.79 stereo 5.79

Sunset (Liberty's budget line) 1.98

Pickwick 1.89

Pickwick 4000 series 2.49

Savoy 14000 series 3.98 (all mono at the time) (this was their Gospel series)

Savoy 12000 series mono 4.98 stereo 5.98

Tamla/Motown etc mono 3.98 stereo 4.98

Vanguard mono 4.79 stereo 5.79

Vanguard Everyman 2.50

Verve (6)8000 series 5.79

Verve (6)5000 series 4.79

WB mono 3.79 stereo 4.79

WB B series mono 4.79 stereo 5.79

MG

[brownie]

I have quite a number of old Down Beat magazines from that time.

The issue dated August 18, 1960 (with a cover photo of Eric Dolphy practicing at seashore) has several label ads.

Prestige advertise new albums at $4.98.

Atlantics at $4.98 for mono LPs; $5.98 for stereos. Same for Blue Notes.

[paul secor]

I remember paying $2.98 for mono LPs and $3.98 for stereo LPs in the early to mid 60s.

[Harold_Z]

I remember paying $2.98 for mono LPs and $3.98 for stereo LPs in the early to mid 60s.

Same here.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

i would of bought them all!!!!

[BFrank]

I don't remember ever paying more than $3 for an LP in the 60s - stereo or mono.

[Shrdlu]

i would of bought them all!!!!

That is the main point now, isn't it? We'd love to teleport back and grab them. Great Scott, where is the Delorean and some Plutonium?

[AllenLowe]

I paid 99 cents at Waldbaum's Supermarket for my first Charlie Parker LP.

also found Cannonball with Strings there, for the same price.

Also, Stan Getz.

[Teasing the Korean]

Some of my earliest vinyl memories as a child were the 99c and 49c mono LPs when they were phasing out mono. That's how I purchased Beatles albums as a kid.