laureatedvd.com

[Mark Bakker]

Decided to add to my collection of classic movies today. Took a drive to the nearby out of town shopping complex which boasts several large supermarkets and DIY stores as well as a newish shopping complex.
I was delighted with my first purchase, at Asda, the Laureate version of 'Citizen Kane' at the bargain price of £9.97. Hope this does not mean it had to be discounted due to poor sales!
Then to the HMV store in the shopping complex. I previously mentioned this shop as having a good collection of classic movies, and this has not changed. I picked up copies of 'Notorious', 'An affair to Remember' and 'Sunset Boulevard'.
I may have stayed in HMV longer had they not been playing Hard Rock Music at a level which was bordering on the offensive.
I'm really not an old bore. I like to think that i dress in a modern style and i endeavour to keep up with the trends, even appreciating some of today's music, but why oh why do music stores have to blast music in this way? It must put off as many people as it attracts. When was the last time anybody went into a music store to find Frank, Bing or Ella on the sound system?
HMV are one of the better stores for offering a choice of music and DVD's, be it Rock or Jazz music, Modern or Classic DVD's. It's a pity this choice is not reflected in the music played in their stores.

[Ken Barnes]

Hi Mark,

Firstly, I was glad to hear that you got Citizen Kane at a bargain price.
This does not reflect poor sales, Apart from healthy in-store action, it has been on Amazon's Top 100 for the past eight months. Last month they dropped the on-line price as a special offer. Now, it's back to full price again.

Secondly, I couldn't agree more about the off-putting NOISE that one must endure in many of the big stores. This is more of a comment on the tastes of the people in charge of the store rather than the buyers. With pop and rock CDs now down to an all-time low, it seems like desperation.

I read in one of the national papers that a recent No.1 sold only 35,000
copies. In my day as a record producer, you had to sell a quarter of a million to make the Top 20. But that was very different day. Actually, I've heard it said that the Easy Listening market now accounts for 43%
of CD sales. But that doesn't suprise me because in a recent survey in which I was involved, it was discoovered that 80% of the disposable income in the U.K. is in the hands of people over 50. Go figure!

Ken

[NORTHWEST]

I think you have hit the spot exactly Ken, when you say that the music played in many of these stores is the choice of the staff for the staff rather than what may please the customers and in turn induce them to spend longer in the shop buying things.

More often than not I find the loud, overbearing noise coupled with the heat of the stores too much and this (coupled with the ease of using it) is why I do most of my shopping on-line. If it is available some on-line retailer will have it and I can do the shopping from the comfort of my home.

To be honest with you, I would prefer not to have any music played in these stores be it my choice or somebody else's. Christmas 2002 I was doing some shopping in Oxford Street, London and I went into a number of the large stores and only one wasn't playing music (Marks & Spencer) and another was playing the most awful rap type music (despite it being days from Christmas-they could have had a bit of Bing for goodness sake!). I just had to leave.

[Jack Clowes]

Ken
Your point about 80% of the disposible income being in the hands of the over 50s is obviously true but I wish the Record company (and Film company) executives knew enough to capitalize on this. When I think of the amount of quality stuff these companies have in their archives it makes me very sad that few of them are aware of the treasures that are buried there. If it weren't for the efforts of US record companies such as Collectibles and Collectors Choice and British ones such as Dutton Vocalion so many of these treasures would never have been released on CD - the Hi-Los Columbia catalogue and Mabel Mercer's Atlantic albums and two cases in point. One of the most guilty of these Record companies is RCA who seem to have no idea of what they own. If you take Jack Jones, for instance, virtually all of his early stuff has been issued on CD by MCA but not one of his RCA Albums (of which there are many more) has been issued by them on CD. The only artist(?) who they seem to be aware of sufficiently well to release a large number of albums is the ubiquitous Mr Presley. With all of their other Artists, Lena Horne, Perry Como (even John Denver) etc etc we have to make do with so called Greatest Hits collections.

Jack
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Jack Clowes