Grateful Dead

Give it a listen on archive

You're welcome

9/19 & 20/70.

It wasn’t me that raised the issue, I only mentioned that one factor that may be slowing sales is the international shipping rate of $16 per item, but it is what it is.
But beyond that, I never give it much thought.

Edit: No problem, 1st Show. It’s just I’m under oath, I want no problems with the law.

I think it was Crow or That Mike he is referring to DR. Had to do a double take myself and go back and see. Certainly an informed opinion running a store. There are tons of resellers on ebay and some of the prices are astronomical but as Colin said that's the free market at work. At those prices there must be a very limited market i.e. those with more money than sense. Makes me wonder if there is a way to protect the artist and maker from reproduction as well. I remember the big stew over cassette decks when they first arrived. And that first file sharing thing, was it Napster? Aren't some movies protected from being copied? But I digress. And clearly mine is an uniformed guess.
Cheers
Edit: Oops, sorry Mike.

That's an interesting post about the sale of cds, but I can't help wondering if you have mixed me up with someone else! My only comment on the sale of Dave's Picks was thinking that if they don't sell out quickly, then it's not so good, and that in this case it might mean we have had a surfeit of 1977 shows.
That's a shocking figure, 50% of subscribers being people who buy to sell on in the first ten years. Screws everything up, I would say. But it's not something I usually think about.

....banking points re give and take with ones life partner.
And a happy wife is not an oxymoron.
My wife got on me about concerts. She wants to raise chickens.
So, we bought a coop. And the chicks need a ticket to enter it lol.
Obligatory thank you to Dennis for the LP on LP dl's.

...

I respectfully disagree with your assessment Daverock but I am curious what your rebuttal would be to the situation I presented. What I want (tons of releases all year long) and what is realistic are two different things. I am a CD store owner and keep a very close eye on what's going on with eBay. As I indicated, there is some guesswork without knowing the specifics of the Rhino deal with the Dead or the budget they have to work with from quarter to quarter.

What I do know is the sales history and sellout rate going back to Rhino's deal to distribute Grateful Dead. First was the Download Series - it was short lived. Why? It either failed because of file transfers between fans, which undercut sales. Or it was a pilot program to gage interest in the Grateful Dead so they could determine how many CDs to manufacture for each release in what would become the Road Trips series.

Road Trips failed. It was not Limited Edition. Some will argue it failed because it sold partial shows, but in reality, they course course corrected on that quickly, and I think at least half were complete shows, mostly in the last half of the 4 year Road Trips program. Incomplete shows is not a good argument for the rebranding to Dave's Picks. We do know some things about Road Trips: 1) It failed or they would not have changed their business model to Limited Edition. 2) We also know if failed because they had stock on the shelves long after the program ended. Old stock of original pressings on CD / Record Store shelves is the kiss of death. This is why record stores were allowed to return LPs and CDs after initial shipments. That's how distribution to outlets works. Back in the day, Tower Records agrees to buy a huge number of U2's current release so they can sell it faster and cheaper, which ultimately led to more floor traffic in their store and lower prices. But this model relied on bulk purchasing, which required cash. Stores therefore had an "out" written into their deal, which allowed them to return unsold quantities to Distributers. Trust me when I tell you that turnaround is the main objective for small operations, since there is nobody to return these CDs to. They have their own private "thing" going on here with the Dead and other "expired" artists. Yes they have a large parent company and Rhino itself is nothing to shake a stick at but all of these little divisions still operating budgets and fiscal goals that need to be met, and these get reviewed quarterly in most companies. Road Trips did not survive the "mystery pressing" sales model (meaning we don't know how many CDs they pressed for Road Trips).

3) Dave's Picks - Limited Edition + Subscription = success. They front-load their sales with subscriptions and sell what's left over. But there is motivation for buyers to subscribe. They save money, they get a bonus disc, and they don't have to worry about missing a release. But look at the small, safe numbers they started with. 12K per release. 48K a year. In steps the resellers. We have no idea how many sales go to resellers, but I would guess 50% of subscriptions went to resellers in the first 10 years of the Dave's Picks program. I've spoken to many of them. Some buy up to 100 units. Rhino does not allow this, but they have they're methods for working around the system. Keep in mind, for eBay seller selling a recent Dave's Picks, he has another copy of the same CD lined up to sell next. In other words, you can't just count the number of Dave's Picks CDs currently on sale. You have to assume most of them have several copies.

The eBay box set and Dave's Picks reseller's bread and butter is the limited edition AND limited pressing model that Rhino took toward the business. It allowed resellers to hog up the merchandise like Harrison's little piggies and mark up the price. Same thing that's going on with concert tickets, except the home business entrepreneur can get a slice of this pie, because CDs are relatively inexpensive next to concert tickets, and relatively profitable if you can get away with a 50 to 70% mark up. But as I said in my previous post, THE EBAY BUBBLE HAS BURST. The casual go-getter can't get a piece of this market anymore. It's been on the decline for a few years as the Dave's Picks numbers increased in manufacturing, but more to the point, which you might have overlooked Daverock, is the massive increase in taxes and other fees that eBay sellers have to accept. They can no longer NOT pay the IRS. eBay reports their earnings to the IRS for anything over $600 starting this year, in the way of a 1099-K (and anyone looking to make money on ebay selling Grateful Dead CDs is Grossing more than $600).

The US tax brackets are higher than a few years ago now too. As I stated in my last post, there is simply no money to be made by peddling Grateful Dead CDs on eBay anymore. Where they used to enjoy at least100% profit on the worst selling Dave's picks, maybe 300% profit on average demand Dave's Picks, and up to 600 - 1000% (or more) on the real hum-dingers, they're completely out in the cold now, because they've gone from paying a measly 13% in sellers fees (which they could get away with making back by bumping the CD price up $10 -$15) to 50% in most cases, depending on your tax bracket). And the CDs are no longer in demand, because of the growth / competition of eBay sellers, and the production increase up to 25K now for each Dave's Picks release. They'll be lucky to break even. The bubble burst and we're seeing it now. I also stated it wouldn't impact us overnight, but we'll see production numbers begin to decrease, and maybe an increase in time between box sets. I don't think it's a coincidence that the early bird pricing was extended this year (it may have been the subscription availability in general, I don't recall). One could also argue (and some have) that the demand for the Dead is going down (at least for 1977). This is natural I think, because so much is already available.

I don't want this any more than any of us. I love all the new releases I can get. But I truly believe a large number of subscriptions were going to resellers, and resellers are leaving this market.

Re: Opera
A case of “Happy wife, Happy life”, gents. Points banked come in handy.

I must be fairly open minded musically, because I occasionally get comments like:
“That sounds like suicide music”
“That makes me want to stick pins in my eyes”
“What the hell is that??”
“You’re making me ill “

S’okay, because I like what I like, and I don’t care if anyone else likes it. I heard a person say to me “you have to see opera Live, to get the beauty of it”. Personally, the vocals are difficult for me to take. Really not big on that Northern European Death Metal either, with all of the low, growling voices that muddle the lyrics.
And yet, give me 20 minutes of pure cacophony, I’ll love it!!
It’s a fools errand to tear down something that others like, because the coin has 2 sides.
Live and let Listen!!

Now, back to my Henry Franklin “ TheSkipper At Home” album.
Go 49ers.