Martin, I'm afraid I'm not very enthusiastic about this plan as it is
now. Committing oneself to buy as many as 50 CD per year sight unknown
is not what I would consider (and you know me). I don't know of any
subscription-based book or record club that does that and I think there
is a reason for it.
Would you consider a modification of this plan, a bit along the lines
of most book and record clubs, that is, giving the customer some choice?
And incidentally, 50 CDs per year is definitely too many: please take
it into account that people buy CDs from various labels, and that for
many people "locking" 50 CDs out of their "yearly allowance" is just not
realistic.
Personally, I would go for a subscription if I had to commit myself to
buy, say, one - maximum two - CD per month *and* could choose either
from a few current titles or from the whole catalogue. (You could burn
more CDs if the demand is larger than expected, I suppose.) Buying
entirely blindly doesn't appeal to me; that is, I do buy a lot of CDs
with works by unknown (to me) composers, but at least I know when they
lived, what genre(s) is/are on the given CDs, and who the performers
are. There are simply period and genres I am not very interested in.
I might buy one unknown to me late-Romantic symphony at Naxos price once
in a few years - and I have to know and like the performers - but if I
risk getting more of them, performed by a moderately good orchestra,
I'll scream and run away. (For others, it may be 18th-C symphonies or
20th-C chamber music, or whatever.)
I certainly support your idea of recording unknown composers (and I
still have to talk you into recording the few works we were taking about
a while ago - I finally got the scores, but I don't know how much the
performing material will be), but I would really suggest that you modify
your plan. Then again, I may be in the minority.
Please regard my feedback as generally encouraging - after modifications.
Cheers,
-Margaret
[log in to unmask]
|