John Smyth wrote:

>When I managed the Classical Room of a CD store in Davis, CA, I found
>thAt Early Music, Baroque Music, and Classical went out the door the most.
>... Some customers were obviously connoisseurs and were investigating
>Early Music or HIP Bar/Classical because they had listened to everything
>else.  ...

This really depends on the demographic makeup of your customers.  Amongst
experienced listeners the cut is certainly the other way round.  As I've
mentioned before, try selling a pre-romantic CD to a secondhand store.
They know that it's much easier for them to sell later works.

>Students used to popular music, listened to in less than perfect
>environments, (car, small portable at home on the dresser), find it's an
>easier jump to the similar mono-emotional, mono-dynamic, mono-rhythmic
>elements of Baroque and Classical.

Wow!  This might apply to some composers from these periods but I would
certainly exclude Haydn from the list.

>If anything from the later eras sold, it was the blockbusters like Carmina
>Burana, Sheherezade, etc; (on Naxos, sigh) and I soon had to quit stocking
>CD's like the lesser known works of Vaughan Williams, for example.  The
>owner of the store said I had to quit stocking for *me* and start stocking
>for the customer.

Sounds like your customers were mainly pop music temporary crossovers.

Bob Draper
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