Fantasy and Artificial Scarcity
Ok – so I’m a bit bummed. After posting a teaser last week via Michael Fermer (and others) Craft/Concord/Fantasy records released an impressive one step new formula vinyl in deluxe packaging of John Coltrane’s “Lush Life.” Price $99 / £80 / €90. 1000 copies. It sold out in about 2 minutes. I had been watching to see what they were selling – but I missed the pre-order availability because I seem to be one of the few people left on this planet who still goes to work. Sold out. 1000 copies – seems very few.
The business model for small batch super-deluxe vinyl releases was created by Mobile Fidelity as few years ago – their “One Step” program. I commented on these releases briefly and own a few of the titles. Like “Lush Life”, the first One Step Mofi title – “Abraxas” by Santana – 1000 copies – sold out immediately and started commanding massive prices on eBay. Subsequent releases increased both the price – $100 to $125 (with a massive import markup for Europe) – and the number of copies. There have been 12 releases so far – the current one – Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Couldn’t Stand the Weather” is easily available for $125 – part of a “limited series” of 7000 copies. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was pressed 6500 times and “Blood On the Tracks” 9000 times. These releases are (painful) 2 x 45rpm and each stamper is created from a single lacquer – so that 4 lacquers are required to press – probably 500 copies, maybe 1000 (they don’t tell us). There is a bit of a world shortage of lacquers at present. These records sound great – but – the boxes are BIG – and they take up the same space as, for example, the Kraftwerk vinyl box set (9 albums). Space for new records in my house is extremely limited; so instead of the Mingus Ah Um (fantastic record) on one-step – I elected to buy the SACD (for 1/4th the price).
While there is no doubt that “One Step” is a tremendous sounding product [Music Matters released a product call SRX vinyl using a similar (?the same) formula (and they all sold out at about $70 a piece) ]- $125 is a lot of money to pay for a record. The equivalent CD is only about $5. How much are you willing to pay for the ultimate sound experience – and is vinyl really that experience?
A UK business, the Electric Recording Company, purports to produce hand crafted exquisitely produced vinyl records, in tiny batches of 300, for £350 (previously £300). Thus far, their dozen or so releases have sold out. Is this “artificial scarcity” or are these records so good that they should sell for 10 times the price of similar products by Analogue Productions?Ok – here is an admission – during one of our lock-downs last year – when I was seriously disappointed by the total lack of out of house entertainment – I bought one. “Way Out West” by Sonny Rollins, on Contemporary (my favorite label) – at the previous lower price. A beautifully presented product – everything looks like the original pressing. The vinyl was absolutely filthy. I thought, initially, that it was a bad pressing due to all the surface noise and skipping. I was actually going to send it back – but ran it through my vinyl cleaning machine a couple of times – and – voila – perfect. The sound? Amazing. Worth more than 20 times the OJC version that I already had or the 24/192 version that I bought (but you can stream) from Qobuz? No. It is superb – not spectacular (I will compare versions at some stage when my new phono stage arrives from Germany). There are, maybe, 30 recordings in history that you might pay that kind of money to obtain. Mal Waldron’s Mal 2 is not one of them. It has sold out. Do you need to spend £350 for a copy of “Forever Changes” by Love from ERC – when you can buy the AAA Rhino vinyl version for about €20 – and it sounds absolutely great (never audiophile to begin with). You can buy a near mint version of the original pressing for <€250.
So, there is a market for super deluxe vinyl. Particularly 1950s jazz (the Blue Note Tone Poet, Analogue Productions Blue Notes, Music Matters etc.) – most of that era’s original fans are dead. What is the attraction for Gen X and Millennials? It is strange that audiophiles are willing to pay £350 for a 60 year old recording on inferior equipment – and have close to no knowledge of far superior sounding recordings from the 1970s and 1980s – by similar artists – that you can buy for very little money.
I have a personal interest in Concord Music Group. The own the copyrights to most of the West Coast Jazz recordings from the 1950s, along with the Prestige recordings and many other labels that I love. They were able to buy up all those great record labels from the profits made from an exploitative contract with Credence Clearwater Revival – essentially ripping off John Fogerty (they have since made up).
Concord constructed the luxury brand “Craft” a few years ago for deluxe reissues. Early releases were digitally sourced – but – over the last year they have been embracing AAA. So – a super-deluxe vinyl reissue program – no brainer! But c’mon – 1000 copies – what’s that about? They could easily sold 5000 copies of “Lush Life.” So why the 1000 units? Either Craft underestimated demand or were trying to create artificial scarcity. This is a common phenomenon around Christmas where high demand items are restricted – and parents end up having to buy them in January due to the sudden deluge of availability. Short supply the first release – encourage enthusiasm – then they will flock to the 5000 unit subsequent releases. It is what it is. I have major issues with the whole psychological manipulation of artificial scarcity – it is an almost uniquely American concept – this article is word reading and the arguments are hard to refute. Artificial scarcity is the reason why I am completely ambivalent about Record Store Day. It is open season for in-the-know e-bayers.
Popular music – is the music of the masses. It was never supposed to be elitist. Why do I have to fork out £350 for a record when I should be able to buy high quality virgin vinyl from an analogue source for €20? You can stream the same music for free. The whole super-deluxe audiophile thing is – frankly – a bit obnoxious. Nevertheless, I am really looking forward to what Craft releases next – and will be quicker on the draw next time!
audioexchange 
Great read.
I for one do not think that Craft particularly underestimated demand. If they called it ‘small batch’ there must be a reason. They must have a strategy. I would guess that nonetheless they wanted to taste water too while creating buzz for the next small batch. Which is probably also why they did not chose a TIER 1 title in their catalog, as good as it is. If they did say 3.000 and took a normal 6/9 months to sell, more people would be sitting on it moving forward. Now, next time around way more people will be hitting the refresh button and the same 3.000 will fly off the shelves. I am not operating in the business but I would think that selling out in 3 hours is better than sitting on some of stock for months if not for years (less storage cost, less people involved in the logistics etc) . Plus they can easily move on to the next one with money in the pockets etc. Last, but not least, I would suppose that being RTI the only pressing plant technologically capable of producing this product you will have also to factor in the plant capacity to accommodate bigger chunks. All of the plants are working full capacity 24/7 and I can personally see this reflected in the price spike during the last few months.
Is this any good for us consumers? Financially speaking: Hell no!
I still hope they can repress the whole OJC catalogue in AAA fashion at affordable price, à la BN Classic or even Tone Poet way. I’d be all over the Miles Quinter, Wes Montgomery, Nat and Cannonball Adderley …you name them!
You are completely correct. I just wish that these companies would do a Music Matters/Vinyl Me Please subscription service and then release the reissues – they have guaranteed sales – at a reasonable price.
Incidentally – I just checked my collection – I have around 50 OJC releases – none of which cost >€30, and the vast majority of them were released AAA in the 1980s. All OJC releases sound good – whether they are digitally sourced or not. No they are not as good as the Contemporary (I have a few) or Prestige first pressings. But they are as good as most of the reissues on those labels. Sometimes reissues just sound better. I have an original pressing of “For Real” by Hampton Hawes – near mint. It sounds great. A new pressing from Fresher Sounds’ Jazz Workshop from 2014 (provenance uncertain – but it is absolute not from a digital source) – literally blows it out of the water. The vagaries of …….
I do not like subscription plans. I prefer to be able to chose what to buy and what not. I am sure that they will press more next time around. I also think that other ones will jump on the bandwagon. I do believe that these BN classic will be reprinted (probably using the same plates) with better presentation, a la music matters as you say. Though I do not like the gatefold album thing. First they impact the price as , I think I understood, the photographies right belong to a third party, and cause there is more paper involved. Third cause they occupy more shelf space, I’d dare say uselessly as once I looked at the pictures that’s it. If they really wanted to present them they could print them on a good inlay. But I think they have to justify the price…
Anyway if these are the prices we are going to be face moving forward I guess that the vinyl growth will start stagnate. I do not know for how long the crowd will accept silently these prices, especially considering that now it is even a problem to have replacement of defective copies. All (or most( the BN classic are out of stock everywhere and have been so just after 3/4 days since street date. Some shops have not received a single copy. And we are speaking about uMe, one of the biggest distributors in the business.
We will see.
Friend from HR with new WP account 🙂