Donald Satz writes:

>I think that stores, in general, are decreasing their classical
>inventories based on poor market analysis and competition
>from web sites

This (I believe to be correct) observation prompts me to ask: What is
a correct market analysis of the classical recordings business?

My thoughts on the subject:

I think there are three kinds of buyers, each with radically different
needs --

1) the very occasional buyer, usually interested in the latest thing
(Chant, Three Tenors, ...)

2) the newcomer, interested in acquiring the basic repertoire

3) the serious collector, looking for "obscure" recordings and offbeat
repertoire.

I can only guess at the relative volumes attributable to each of these
classes of buyers --

1) occasional - 1 or less classical CDs per year, but potentially a very
large number of buyers for the latest rage

2) newcomer - 10s of CDs per year, but a relatively small number of buyers
(the 3% to 4% of the market?)

3) serious - 100s of CDs per year, but only a small fraction of a small
fraction of buyers.

What are the implications of these buying patterns? Will the walk-in
store business cater mostly to the occasional and newcomer buyers, and
mail/phone/internet orders address the needs of the serious collector?
That seems to me the direction we're headed.

len.