The special orders guy at my local store reports that they've done away
with Naxos Canada and, for some idiot 'streamlining' scheme, we're going
to be subject to Naxos USA, somewhere in the South.  No doubt fine people
run that ship-shape shop, but despite protestations to the contrary, since
just before Christmas things have been going down the toilet here in
responsiveness, promptness, updating depleted items, staying current with
new releases, etc.

AFAIC, Naxos has been a tonic all round.  Not just putting out first rate
material in many cases, but shocking those in the industry who complacently
think "full" (read: ridiculous) price is something addicts like me can
sustainably afford, prompting them to reissue items at discounts and via
sub-labels (so we can then afford the other stuff), egging new well-priced
labels such as Aura and Arte Nova to surface on our horizon (check out
Aura's release of Honneger's SQs, or Arte Nova's of Schulhoff).

On top of all else, from what I've been reading in this thread it would
appear that binding Naxos Canada to the US might also make us susceptible
to its copyright laws.  (A continentalizing straightjacket that's of a
piece with the war on generic-made pharmaceuticals, vote-catching
prison-building schemes when crime rates have been trending downwards,
spurious get-tough yet expensive wars on drugs ...even - think of it -
a US Drug Enforcement Agency office now in Vansterdam!  No thanks.)

I've been tempted to write a protest note to the label, but no doubt would
get some reassuring pap about how it's all aimed at improved services for
all concerned, saving us money, etc.  If Santa Klaus and Naxos really start
behaving like the others, then I'll throw up my hands and wail since the
world's truly wrong.

Please don't screw up Heymann.

Bert Bailey, in Ottawa