Peter Wisse wrote:

>Always useful information, but I wonder if the distribution and
>availability of NAXOS CD's are as poor in other coutries, as they are
>in mine, The Netherlands.  ...

It seems that Naxos distributes very differently over the world.  I haven't
been to Stockholm, but I found the amount of Naxos CDs in Swedish shops
enourmous.  To me, they seemed to dominate the market, rather than adding
something to it.  For me that's definitely a loss and a danger.  I found
that most CDs in stock were of the type "Most famous Opera Tunes".  I
rather have a decent collection of that big labels than that.  Of course,
most desirable would be everything!  (As far as the Sweden of my experience
is concerned, Skivhugget in Gothenburg is a laudable exception, but all
smaller shops I visited had almost exclusively Naxos.)

Here in Hamburg it seems to be quite different.  The Naxos assortment is
quite fine, but not nearly complete.  But I would say that focus is one
the big ones (UniversalClassics, Sony, EMI, Teldec (curiously not the
other Warner labels).  The independent labels besides Naxos (BIS, Chandos,
Hyperion, to name but a few) are nearly impossible to find.

Because of this lack of uncommon repertoire, I find myself ordering more
and more from the internet, which seems to be the fastest (and cheapest)
way to get CDs.  Is it truly impossible to earn money with a good CD store?

Jan