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Re: [ARSCLIST] Folkways Reissues
Don't get me wrong... please understand that I admire what Folkways is doing, and it is something that needs to be done... Maybe this illustration will show me what I mean... I have a private collection of music... I have been collecting for 20 years, and I am 23 years old... Say someone wanted a CD dub of a recording in my collection... I could transfer it onto CD and xerox the liner notes for them, and this would cost me at most one dollar. I could charge them five dollars for the whole thing, plus shipping, and make a 500% profit... Smithsonian, a government entity, owns the rights to all these masters outright... they probably buy blank CDs, labels, and paper for insert materials in massive quantities... thereby saving money... in other words, they probably don't have considerable overhead aside from paying someone to do these transfers (which, understanding the importance of keeping this music alive, would gladly do for them free of charge)... what I am trying to say
is, all things considered, considering that they own the masters and probably get the raw materials at or below wholesale pricing, they could easily charge $10 a CD and make a nice profit on it (and it probably costs them less to make a custom CD than it does me, because I buy my supplies in retail quantities at retail prices). I guess part of my point of view is that I am a collector who has always been on a shoestring budget. I sincerely hope I did not offend anyone.
Most Sincerely Yours,
G.E.
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