The Beautiful Voice meets the Invisible Hand
Market forces at work in a London music shop.
Cher Public
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That’s interesting. At amazon.co.uk Dark Hope is GBP 6.99 and Believe is GBP 7.77. If for some strange reason I had to buy one of them, I’d buy the Katherine Jenkins.
That’s just madness.
Cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not selling. Popular items are quite often cheaper.
Speaking of Amazon.co.uk, the sales rank right now for Dark Hope is #96 and Believe is #1,402.
Ah, but thomas, surely you understand that in pop music, the only thing that really matters is how much money an album makes. Other than that, there isn’t much to it. Ask any record executive out there. In pop music, the only people who EVER get an album produced by a label are those who the executives think will actually sell records. Quality seldom has anything to do with it. If they think it’ll sell, they will produce it, even if it stinks.
I don’t understand your point. Isn’t the implication of this post that Renee’s recording is a commercial failure?
Not at all thomas. It actually remains to be seen, since it hasn’t even been released in the US yet. However, cash is king in pop music, and everyone knows it. So it had better make some money, or she probably won’t get to do another one like it.
Also, regarding Amazon UK’s ranking of the RF album at #96, and the KJ album ranking at 1,402, that is quite normal, since RF’s is only just out (in Britain) and KJ’s has been out everywhere for about a year now, or maybe longer. So of course, everyone who wants KJ’s album has pretty much bought it and its ranking falls as the sales fall. RF’s album ranking will fall too in a year as its sales also decline. So the comparison you made is not particularly apt. Why don’t you compare rankings with a similar album being released on the same or nearly the same date?
Yes, I agree JATM, but then what is the point of the above picture?
Umm, I guess the point is that an album by KJ that is a year old is selling for more than an album that is brand new by RF. In England anyway.
Also, its the usual sort of teasing that RF gets on this site, and should be expected by everyone who comes here.
“the point is that an album by KJ that is a year old is selling for more than an album that is brand new by RF”
But isn’t that always the case? Granted, there aren’t many brick and mortar music stores left, but if, for instance, you went to Manhattan’s J&R you’d see that new releases are generally marked down quite a bit for at least the first week of sale. After a while, the price goes up to whatever’s the usual for that outlet.
A better comparison would be between this Renee disc and one of her older ones, which I’m sure would be priced along the lines of the Jenkins.
Well, it’s no Dick In A Box…
German Humor at its best, liebe Freunde.
ROTFLMAO!
Oh the irony! After all, RF has more voice and talent and taste, in any repertoire, than KJ has on her very best day.
Sad thing is that this is probably true.
OT but there’s a tiny London connection… Can anybody think of examples of distinguished singers who appeared only once or very rarely in London because of the nastiness of the London musical press? Carlos Kleiber famously only ever conducted one pair of orchestral concerts in London (jumping in for Karl Boehm) because the London critics were so unpleasant about his work…
Didn’t Sills say that she was treated very badly by the press here?
She was – by a generation of critics who only wanted to hear Sutherland or Callas as Lucia. I think her debut at the ROH was in 1970. Other singers who felt they were badly treated were Fischer-Dieskau, whose Falstaff was trashed in comparisons with Evans (!!!) and Gobbi. I saw all three as Falstaff and Evans was the least well-sung, but he understood the character. Fischer-Dieskau’s performance was very Germanic (and sung in German when I saw it in Munich) and many London critics of that generation found it hard to accept a German, though evidently not a Welshman, in a super-Italianate role such as Falstaff. But it wasn’t only London who treated Mme Sills badly. A certain Rudolf Bing – a Brit by naturalisation, of course – barred her for years from the Met and was very sarky about her in his books, saying he wanted to put on the Donizetti Tudor Queens for Caballé at the Met but Sills, having been born and raised in Brooklyn, had a prior right in New York to portray British royalty! I’m not sure that Sills was a huge hit at La Scala either. I listen to her recordings now – especially of the Tudor Queens – and the voice may be light-timbred, but she gives the music and drama everything she can throw at them, which is more than you can say for Sutherland or Caballé. Of the commercial recordings of Stuarda and Bolena, Sills remains my favourite.
That recording of Siege of Corinth left me with the impression that La Scala liked her quite a bit on at least that one outing, though I can’t speak to her further reception there. And I don’t think she ever took her Queens to Italy, keeping them a domestic thing (unless I’m mistaken, which is entirely possible).
Dear Regina, The Grammar Police would insist that you change the phrase to “Another Singer who felt he was,” but I rather prefer your construction. In my mind it conjures up the idea that all singers combined just about equalled one Dietrich Fischer-Dieakau. Happy 85th birthday, Diety, you old Teutonic Behemoth, you. And thanks.
Bing did try to get Sills but she enjoyed all the publicity about the poor American girl being ignored by the Met.
But Kleiber got raves for his rare operatic performances in London.
True – but after the concert episode in 1981 he only came back to London for the new Otello in 1987 and one revival run in 1990…
I’m sorry, but why ‘the invisible hand’?
It’s a term from economics, which describes how the market shakes down so that everything ends up at the price people are prepared to pay.
Thanks. And here I thought we had found another diatribe for La Jenkins.
An economic idea, certainly- but one here that is, perhaps, unintentionally ironic.
To address the implication of true value expressed by price, one should remember that new releases are almost always offered at a significant discount during their first weeks of sale. After a year on the market, pop albums are often found at full price. Ms. Jenkin’s album has been on sale for a year. Additionally. KJ is a British islander, who has been recording pop since 2004, and probably has something of a following for those who appreciate her in this genre.
The unintentional irony for me comes in the idea of the less-than-invisible hand of our doyenne in pitching a narrative of failure that has yet to be demonstrated. Those who visit here cannot be unaware of the idee fixe that RF represents for LaC. Understandable- this is an opera site, after all, and RF is one of the most renowned current practitioners. But the eagerness to post anything that seems, even speciously, to redound to RF’s discredit- 3 posts in as many days, posts that, to me, have objectively be described as sneering- show a hand that is far from invisible. No, this is not Fox News, and RF is not Obama. But I’m wondering at what point to expect “Fair and Balanced” as a tag line, at least where this singer is concerned.
I enjoy pictures of London music shop windows as much as anyone, but what of other narratives? Here’s some red meat- In what strikes me as related news from London that I have yet to see here, Natalie Dessay is again receiving accolades for La Fille at Covent Garden.
I am cautiously optimistic, nachdover. Your cap seems to be capturing some of the flow of venom, but so much has already washed up on the beaches that it may be too late.
The occasional tarball is to be expected- but one has to try to battle a slick that threatens to overwhelm. We’ve already lost a harmless seabird or two.
BTW, your posts are treasures.
Which of the London newspapers is the least crackpot?
Well, ignoring the slightly leading question, it depends what you’re looking for. The tabloids are tabloids are tabloids. Of the so-called ‘Quality’ press the Times is part of the Murdoch empire, with all that entails. The Telegraph is the paper of the right, the Guardian of the left, and the Independent for the people with no particular political colour but who like to knit their own yogurt.
There’s not too much difference between the quality of the music criticism in each paper, which is lowish. London’s daily evening paper, the Standard is to be avoided even though it’s free, because it might have Norman Lebrecht in it.
Sorry about the “crackpot,” but I remember some here saying that such-and-such paper couldn’t be trusted in terms of editorial leanings. Looking for reviews of Dessay’s Fille, Google offered first the London Times.
Norman Lebrecht was got rid of after a former KGB man, Alexander Lebedev, bought the Evening Standard from the Daily Mail group in 2009. Poetic justice anyone?
When it comes to music, the Financial Times by a mile.
Thanks, that was the reason for my question.
Really? I’ve never bothered with the FT. I had no idea they even carried music reviews.
FYI:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b8e46a94-645f-11df-8cba-00144feab49a.html
including: “though her voice is sometimes on the thin side, she sings with an energy and sincerity that give her a formidable arsenal.”
(review by Richard Fairman, May 21, 2010)
The FT classical music and opera coverage is wider (and generally more intelligent) than anything else published in London
Lebrecht will always have a home at OperaChic.
The FT opera, theater, dance, and music reviews are the main reason I subscribe. Reviews on a global level. The Saturday edition is good too – often has well-written articles on traveling, design, and fashion.
. . . and the Wall Street Journal has Martin Bernheimer. Hmmmm.
Which of the music journals do the best coverage of economic and political news, do you think?
Jeez, all you guys discussing economic principles and market forces! Maybe La Cieca was amused by this picture that juxtaposes two star singers extensively discussed on this site and thought it would be a laugh to post it on her blog. I don’t think any deeper meaning or motive needs to be sought.
That’s adorable…
Um, someone asked what ‘invisible hand’ meant. I think it would be pretty tricky to explain that phrase without using either the word ‘economic’ or the word ‘market’.
There is also a striking similarity in the album covers overall, which probably is no accident in terms of marketing. They are both aiming at essentially the same audience.
as the picture is from HMV, it might be worth noting that new releases are usually on special offer in the HMV shops and via their website for one or two weeks after being released before they revert to full price.
I bought for instance the double dvd of barber of seville (even though i loathe rossini!!!) for £9.99 when it was newly released and the double dvd of lohengrin with kaufmann and harteros for £14.99. so with new releases one cannot tell the sales from the price. if you find something in the bargain bin 3-6 months after release then u can tell that it was a no-seller (like the erwin schrott solo disc which i scooped up on mainland europe for €3 three months after the initial release…)
This was my rule of thumb when record shops were in their hey day if they were franchise chain but autonomous management and they had classical sections. I picked out the socio – ecomonic ‘neighborhood’ where I predicted certain classical composers would /did not sell well. In would come the new releases, I would wait and anticipate the rapidness in fall out in that local interest. Then watch the prices tumble. If the district was ‘where mag wheels and hot V 8 rods’ were popular, you were sure to get say some ‘glitz’ Monteverdi opera set, in the absolute rock bottom price bargain bin, very quick. In other ‘more snobbish’ districts, it would be still selling for much higher prices. I always found that buying method worked. Judging and predicting the market.
Harry ! You astound me ! I didn’t think you had any rules. Unless they involved lubricant.
B-A-B ; CD and DVD markets are just like the stock markets. The buyer must learn to cynically play the game back against the market. Better than a blog here about some artist or release, if you want to ‘sink it’: bad mouth it to everybody you know, if it be of interest to them. I don’t know how many of my friends (we were all, almost part of a ‘group cult network’) that could get to even the ears of critics .We frequented and used to go to particular big classical shops where we were on first name terms with everybody. For fun as an experiment: we decided to spread ‘the word around’ about Sutherland’s biggest turkey stinker – when Adriana Lecouverer hit the deck. Mocking it to the hilt! It was a case of being ‘socially out’ if one was ever caught with a copy of ‘such shit’ in one’s possession.The shop owners had many copies in anticipation of sales…..and many was forced to ‘do a virtual complete return’. I think the distributor got the message. And word kept continuing to travel around, about it years later. Believe in the power of ‘opera megalomania’ Its real!.