Donald Satz wrote:

>Continuing to use Philadelphia as an example, they are reported to start
>recording performances on their very own label.  Is this their long-range
>plan? - lose a contract with a major record company and replace it with a
>small-time home-grown label.  Where's the planning? What's the long-term
>vision?

Having your own label can be a real boon to a recording artist.  It
puts you in control of many of the ways which money hemorages out of a
recording, it puts you in control of marketing.  Let us face facts - the
major record labels are not promoting orchestras so much as conductors and
individual artists.  The Philedelphians may well be able to do a better
job promoting themselves - or at least hiring their own promoter - than
any label might.

This does not seem such a bad thing to me - make the recording arm of an
orchestra part of the orchestra's structure itself - market most recordings
to the faithful with a low overhead, and occasionally shop a recording with
wider appeal to the outside.  The collectors will hear about it one way or
another, and that is a core audience that should allow recordings that
would otherwise not be funded to get out to the outside world.

Stirling S Newberry
[log in to unmask]