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CLASSICAL CD BUYING GUIDE - Price Categories
ALL PRICES ARE IN SINGAPORE DOLLARS AND APPLY TO THE SINGAPORE MARKET

last update: 17.11.97

The above figures and lists are not exhaustive and will vary from store to store, country to country.
In addition, HMV and Tower will add up to $7 (usually $2-$4) to "imported" CDs.

Why these categories??? How do they work?

You do realize that Classical CDs are a mess when it comes to prices? Ever hesitate in buying that delicious-looking disc because you don't know whether the $25.74 price tag is for real? Or are you still wondering why the best CD you bought last month only cost you $9.17?

Well, you see, there's this thing called price-categories. The reasons for NOT having a standard pricing are manifold, and... well, let's not get into too much detail. Suffice to say that older recordings earn less royalty, newer recordings are believed to sell better, etc. In the end, a record company usually doesn't care so much for how good or bad the music is on the CD so long as it sells. Hence, Vanessa Mae is evidently "worth" more than Kodaly quartet on Naxos.

There's also this fascinating phenomenon known as the REISSUE. You see, after some time, a full-priced CD (which was "new" and had more selling-power in its time, say three to ten years ago) isn't going to or deemed to be attracting much customer attention these days. So a record company will often repackage it, lower its price and resell what is essentially the same product, but thankfully with a cooler cover. Sometimes if we're lucky, the company pretends that it has used some new-fangled "4½-D Hoolahoop Abracadabra Technology" to improve the recording's sound, and then we're supposed to feel privileged to have been born later than those suckers who had to buy the thing when Stereo was the in-thing.

Well, okay, sometimes the sound does improve. But the important thing is that eventually, almost every CD gets reissued because of the need to re-sell the old with new attributes. In addition, because there are always relatively poor people such as myself around, an old recording can regain new life in the market by simpy lowering its price. In other words, to the recording company's marketing executive, selling 100 pieces of an old full-priced CD at $24 is not as good as selling 150 pieces of the same CD at $18. Remember, he doesn't really care even if it's supposed to be a classic recording, only its final profit.

So, for those of us willing to wait, patience often pays off when the two mid-priced Decca Ovation CDs of Ashkenazy's Prokofiev piano concertos, which appeared in May 1996, suddenly reappears in a Double Decca pair only one year later. Or even better, when Carlos Kleiber's recordings of Beethoven's 5th and 7th Symphonies, which were originally on two full-priced discs, appears in one mid-priced disc! Couldn't afford the mid-priced Bernard Haitink Shostakovich symphonies cycle on Decca? Now you can buy the reissued budget-priced Capbox set (but of course, Mr. Marketing makes sure you buy ALL eleven CDs)!

So the next time you go shopping, watch the dates on the thing. If that full-priced (or even mid-priced) CD's cover looks distinctly 80s, chances are it's going to be reissued soon. A reissued CD is often distinguished by its mid-to-budget price and old publication dates appearing next to its new © date, the latter being the year of reissue. This is the case especially with large recording labels like Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, BMG and EMI; as well as some of the smaller ones like Harmonia Mundi and more recently, Hyperion.

And thus, finally, remember this very important rule: Price Has No Relation To Quality Of Performance. To find out why, go read Isaak's HOW TO WALK INTO A CLASSICAL MUSIC STORE AND NOT COME OUT TOTALLY CONFUSED guide to buying classical CDs.

The Inkpot Classical Music Editor will be always be happy to hear from you.

Back to the Classical Index!... or read previous classical music reviews and features at the Inkpot



pub.17.11.97 ©Chia Han-Leon

Readers' Comments

From: Tom Connor (twcinpa@hotmail.com / Wednesday, January 27, 1999 at 14:17:46)

So much great performances will be missed by only looking at the latest CD's. I began attending Boston Symphony concerts in Munch's last year. Recently I began buying some of his performances with the orchestra on CD. They arn't new. But my saxaphone playing daughter has suddenly found the tone colors of Debussy, Ravel and Berlioz among others. I having a great, and relatively cheap, time as well. It's just an added benefit these performances are on budget CD's.

 

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