Don Satz opines ...

>...  the U.S.  does not prohibit foreign-based record companies from
>distributing their recordings here; those are company decisions and they
>often don't appear reasonable"

Quite.  Rather in the same fashion as our news is handed to us on a
preformed plate according to the whimsical desires of the media moguls, the
availability or otherwise of discs seems to be very much a case of "I'm
sorry, but you're the eighteenth person I have told today there is no
demand for this item."

Having said that, I was back in the UK over the holiday season and
reaffirmed my feeling that most of my music-buying friends there are
slightly jealous of the apparently wider range of choice of discs in the
US -- and especially the significant price differential.  The average High
Street price for a full price disc -- converting GBP to US$ at 1.60 --
works out to be around S22.40 compared with the $16.99 I find commonly
here in what my Virginian friends call the Occupied Territories.

It may not be perfect (what is?) and we may justifiably moan from time to
time.  But thank Heavens for small Murphies (and miniature Palestrinas,
miniscule Grauns, titanic Tcherepnins,.....)

Tim Mahon
Alexandria, VA
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