Black Europe

[Face of the Bass]

Man this looks like it will be a great set. I've got a keen and growing personal and professional interest in this sort of thing, but that price tag is an enormous obstacle. It makes me wish they had edited themselves more, and maybe limit it to 20 discs and 1 huge book instead of two. As it is the only way I could afford it would be to sell off half of my Mosaic box sets.

Edited September 22, 2013 by Face of the Bass

[AllenLowe]

yes it's so culturally important that they want to make sure that only 500 people can afford to own it.

[Face of the Bass]

I mean, why not break it up into smaller box sets?

[cih]

i think the opinion of some of those involved is that 'almost nobody' would buy all the individual discs on it (probably this means that there are things on it that nobody at all would buy individually - which begs an obvious question) - but once it's all out there, in one form or another, it's out there... i agree though, it's something which is crazily limiting.

if you have any spare change left, you could get this - http://www.ebay.com/itm/300969625287?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

[mikeweil]

I must admit, I'm tempted ....

[AllenLowe]

I'm saving my $$$$ for the new Paramount set.

[cih]

^ still an unknown quantity price-wise, as far as i know.. looks amazing, the complete art book and field manual were downloadable for free for a while - i suspect this was a mistake as there is a ton of info on there. Christmas 2014 if i'm lucky.

Edited September 23, 2013 by cih

[cih]

i notice that you have to subscribe to the Third Man Vault in order to see the info on the Paramount box now - for which there's a fee http://thirdmanrecords.com/Security/login?BackURL=%2Fparamount-home

[Big Beat Steve]

i think the opinion of some of those involved is that 'almost nobody' would buy all the individual discs on it (probably this means that there are things on it that nobody at all would buy individually - which begs an obvious question) - but once it's all out there, in one form or another, it's out there... i agree though, it's something which is crazily limiting.

Agreed. I figure their approach is "If you do it at all, do it right, cover it in depth, go the whole way". Understandable IMO, because if you cover an extreme "special-interest" subject like this, then those who would want to buy it probably won't go for something that has gaps by definition. And wouldn't this already be the case if you cut things in half (as sugested here).

Besides, a "Best Of" compilation is available as a taster anyway. And like you said, would those really interested in this go keep up with a set of maybe 20 two-CD sets individually? (Which may not be any cheaper to produce, BTW)

But given the overall scope (44 CDs plus two huge books for 499 europs), this adds up to how much per individual CD? Probably less than 10 euros apiece, considering what a decent book on such a specialist subject would go for.

Does Mosaic charge less on average for their individual CDs in a box set?

I agree it is big money but what could be the bone of contention about the price? If you consider the Bear Family label policy (like it has always been - and here the price per CD is only two thirds of that of an individual Bear Family CD, which is a price cut you won't always find in their other box sets), it couldn't possibly be the individual price per CD but only the question of whether anybody would jump THAT deeply into such a specific subject in ONE go.

I for one won't take the plunge but I realize that it's not the fault of the product but of my insufficient interest in this subject matter that would warrant jumping in THAT deeply. A compilation on such special-interest music like it has been done by the Old Hat label (or maybe the 3-CD set linked to above) would be something else ... So no complaints on my part.

[Face of the Bass]

Of course the issue is not that the charge is out of proportion to the material being offered. But hell, they could include nuggets of gold in the box set and be justified in charging a much higher price.

The problem is that this is a case of the "go big or go home" model run amok. It's basically a fuck you to anybody who is interested in this stuff but doesn't have the money or appetite for THIS large a set.

I'd also question whether the category "blacks in Europe" is the right one, or whether clearer distinctions should be made between African Americans and Africans.

But I'm sorely tempted all the same. Maybe I'll just sell a dozen box sets to try to dig up enough money to get this.

[MomsMobley]

Black Europe blows away most Mosaic sets; two totally different worlds, of course, but laudable as Mosaic is, how many of their booklets are that revelatory? Some are excellent, some adequate but most are just 'nice.' As Big Beat Steve noted, the books alone here would be big $$$ if published by some art or academic press (the only two options, it seems). The material of borderline interest here would seen to be x # of discs of tribal/native recordings but I do think it's better to include them than not.

http://black-europe.com

I enquired about ordering the set direct from Bear Family btw but though they're doing a 499 Euro shipping included special now, they do NOT take off the VAT so it's still big $$$. JPC.de on the other hand has it for 539 Euro but they do take of the VAT so that's an option for Americans; JPC sometimes has coupons too.... ImportCDs has it at $852, which I definitely can't afford even after selling this/that, tho' I'd definitely swap, say, the three Commodore boxes or Miles Blackhawk + Coltrane vinyl, if I had still 'em. (Or Nat King Cole + Wayne Shorter/Lee Morgan + whatever the 3rd priciest Mosaic CD set is.)

As for Bear going all or nothing on this, I don't know what the alternative is, other than maybe an e-book down the line? I highly doubt Richard Weize is making money off this so...

Edited December 8, 2013 by MomsMobley