Donald Satz wrote:

>I have never viewed the "American Idol" show on commercial television,
>but its impact seems to be tremendous.  This season's runner-up entertainer,
>Clay Aiken, just released his first cd and it sold 613,000 copies during
>the first week.

While I don't mean to toot my own horn...several critics (including
the late Harold Schoenberg) have said that the Welte recordings we have
released are the first credible issues, yet Debussy playing Debussy has
sold but 1,200 copies, and it is our best seller.  On the other hand, I
wonder, how many discs have been sold featuring Debussy's music.  I can
only guess that in the long run, Debussy's music has outsold Clay Aiken.

>I was thinking that a prime-time tv contest among Gil Shaham, Maxim
>Vengerov, Hillary Hahn, and a few other violinists might have a big
>impact on record sales.  Any opinions?  We could even have Lara St.
>John as a half-dressed contestant.

I wonder if a cover photo of Debussy nude would sell more copies.
I don't think it helped Stockhausen when DG issued a disc with nude
photo of the composer on the cover...but then, that was the music
of Stockhausen...and how can one compare Stockhausen to Aiken?

Ok, so fess up, how many of you out there bought copies of Ofray Harnoy
recordings based on the cover photo.

Karl