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Varese Sarabande's 25th Birthday

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Author	Topic: Varese Sarabande's 25th Birthday

FalkirkBairn Reman	Just seen on their website: Varèse Sarabande celebrates its 25th Anniversary! In the 25 years since 1978, Varèse Sarabande Records has released well over 1000 albums. Of those, nearly 900 are film scores. Averaging over fifty new soundtrack releases a year, Varèse Sarabande’s catalog features virtually every great name in film music: Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Elmer Bernstein, John Barry, Thomas Newman, Alan Silvestri, Howard Shore, Randy Newman, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, Mark Isham, Graeme Revell, Trevor Rabin, Georges Delerue, Henry Mancini, Patrick Doyle, James Horner, Carter Burwell, Rachel Portman, Randy Edelman and Marc Shaiman along with countless others and all the legendary composers of Hollywood’s Golden Age. There are far too many titles to assemble any compilation even remotely comprehensive, but we did want to pause in our release schedule to take a moment to remember just a few of our favorites. This four CD set features a total of five hours of music and becomes the biggest compilation we’ve ever assembled. • Included are cues from such blockbuster film series as Star Wars, Die Hard, Back to the Future and Scream … • Some of the biggest blockbusters of the last few years are here … Cast Away, The Sixth Sense, The Matrix, Shrek, Ice Age and The Last of The Mohicans… • Classics from Varèse Sarabande’s long history of horror film soundtrack releases like Halloween, A Nightmare On Elm Street and The Crow… • Family classics like Father of the Bride, City Slickers, The Secret Garden, Babe and Rudy… • Action blockbusters like Air Force One, XXX, Rush Hour 2 and Gone In 60 Seconds… • Great romantic comedies like You’ve Got Mail, Green Card and While You Were Sleeping… • Critically acclaimed films such as In The Bedroom, LA Confidential and Far From Heaven… • Best Picture Oscar winners Driving Miss Daisy and Unforgiven… • Best Score Oscar winners The Right Stuff, The Omen, Emma and others! … • A few all-time classics like Sunset Boulevard, The Adventures of Robin Hood and Vertigo! And there’s so much more! Help us celebrate! • 4 CDs priced for little more than a single — it’s almost a giveaway! This could be a must-have for any collection
posted 03-04-2003 02:09 AM PT (US)

jonathan_little Romulan	Oh yes, Varese, let's pat ourselves on the back. This sounds like something that they should be giving out for free with every order. Looks like Varese has picked up Identity from Silvestri.
posted 03-04-2003 05:30 AM PT (US)

Widescreen Romulan	Hey, Jonathan, if you don't want to cut Varese any slack, that's your right- but I, for one, think Varese has done a service to us by releasing what they can when they can. A lot of film scores that wouldn't be released that should have (as much as those that shouldn't, sometimes more than), wouldn't have without Varese. Love that company. I'm buying that disc.
posted 03-04-2003 06:38 AM PT (US)

JJH Romulan	25 years in the soundtrack biz seems amazing to me, and they have nothing to be ashamed of. They do what they love, and they do it pretty well. God bless 'em.
posted 03-04-2003 08:14 AM PT (US)

jonathan_little Romulan	Hasn't anybody else noticed that since they've re-instated the Club, almost all of the new releases of original tracks to old films have been expensive Club releases? What happened to discs like Planet of the Apes and "Bernard Herrmann at Fox?" How about the Omen trilogy deluxe discs? I'm sorry, but as a person mainly interested in old scores, I'm not very happy with this new pricing scheme. Their re-recordings are great. Their releases of new scores are great. I'm just not happy that we now have Club releases of old scores with a higher price and zero distribution instead of regular releases with a normal price and 'light' distribution.
posted 03-04-2003 09:58 AM PT (US)

miss tonya Romulan	Well, it's just like the tobacco companies... they charge high prices because they know the addicts will pay it! Hey.. we're film score addicts!
posted 03-04-2003 12:10 PM PT (US)

Hellstrom Reman	I'm just curious about all these complaints regarding price structure. If you buy a "normal" release, let's say in Tower, it's stickered at about 18.99. A Club release which is more difficult to produce, vis a vis licensing and restoration costs, is priced at 19.99. Is that such a difference to the consumer? Maybe, but it's certainly a big difference to the record company. By retailing it "normally" a large chunk of the income goes to the distributor, by retailing it "direct market" all of the income returns to the label, thus allowing more funds to be plowed into future restorations. Is this such a difficult concept? Added to which, most of the limited editions on all the specialty labels are failing to break the 1,000 unit mark. Right now we live in soundtrack heaven, there's never been a better time to be a collector--but economic realities are here to stay, and it's likely that within a year or two, the sheer weight of bad return will Darwin-style remove some of the smaller players. Varese however, who have ridden many a wave over their twenty five year history, will no doubt still be alive and kicking, long after the others have packed their bags.
posted 03-04-2003 12:43 PM PT (US)

jonathan_little Romulan	It still sounds like a great deal for the record company to me. Varese gets 100% of the income plus outrageous shipping fees. I just find it more convenient to go down to Borders and pay cash of $17 plus $.85 sales tax instead of paying $20 online plus $5.50 shipping on the credit card. I get immediate satisfaction out of my Borders purchase, too. Record companies are lucky they're still getting my business with the price gouging that's going on at all levels of the industry. Those of you that enjoy the high prices prices, go right ahead and buy buy buy. I'm afraid I'll continue to complain. I'm just happy to see some conversation on here that's not about Hans freaking Zimmer.
posted 03-04-2003 03:39 PM PT (US)

Dinko Romulan	Hellstrom, you are comparing internet orders for one and retail purchases for the other. Yes, a CD will cost 18.99 at your local Tower, but it will also cost 13.99 at cduniverse. You have to pay shipping, but shipping in many places is 3$ for US orders which is still cheaper than your local tower. If you're going to compare prices, compare them on the internet vs. the internet, or in retail vs. retail. So jonathan_little's complaint against milking the fanboy with high prices on limited releases and official bootlegs still stands.
posted 03-04-2003 05:59 PM PT (US)

Dinko Romulan	And before any one blasts me for blasting Varèse Sarabande, I offer the following: 1) We all like Varèse Sarabande, and appreciate what they are doing. I have dozens of their CDs, and even more on a wish list. 2) Criticizing them for one policy in no way implies that we hate them. This internet extrapolation of what "he said, she said" is getting annoying. Some one says they don't like the prices on Varèse Sarabande's limited releases, and automatically people assume that that person hates the whole record label.
posted 03-04-2003 06:03 PM PT (US)

jonathan_little Romulan	Thanks Dinko, I will add... I enjoy many Varese Sarabande CDs that I have in my collection. I will buy Varese Sarabande CDs in the future. I want cheaper prices (who doesn't?)
posted 03-04-2003 06:29 PM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Romulan	Happy Birthday VS!! I can't ever forget that these were the guys who put out LPs of A Time to Love and A Time To Die, Last Embrace, The Eye of the Needle, The Dunwich Horror, Goliath and the Barbarians, 36 Hours, and others when I was just starting to collect. Sure, I have minor complaints, but overall I'm very glad these guys are around. Cheers (and take the bong away from RT already)!
posted 03-04-2003 09:28 PM PT (US)

Hellstrom Reman	Dinko, I was not assuming you hated Varese Sarabande, nor was I comparing "internet" vs "retail." I was explaining the difference between "normal" distributed retail, which includes the internet, vs "direct market," which is where the record labels sells directly to the consumer without going through its distribution system. If CD universe, or whoever, wishes to lower the rrp on any given item, then it takes the loss, for the record label still receives its rrp negotiated percentage from the distributor. When Varese Sarabande, or FSM, or Intrada, or Rhino Handmade, or any other specialty label produces the "limited edition" model, the boilerplate is mandated by the studios and musician's union. $20 has been the fixed rate on this procedure now for about five years, so regular retail prices have in fact caught up with it. In 1989, when Varese initiated the CD club and became the first soundtrack label to use the "direct market" model, they still charged $20!(And remember in those days the union charged full rate new-use.) That was quite a sum fourteen years ago, but they had to recoup the higher outlay for a smaller unit run. This is how it works: The union agrees a lower new-use rate for a "limited" number, and the studios and union agree 3,000 as a reasonable number. It was identified demographically as the tally of die-hard soundtrack collectors in the world. Some of Varese's early editions were only 1,500 - same goes for Bay Cities. Some film companies will now only grant licenses on the 3,000 unit model which was mandated by Fox originally in the mid-nineties. It was Fox that made the union deal. Without it, there would be far fewer releases at any unit price! Here's the math: It costs, (even with the lower re-use rates) approximately 15 - 20,000 dollars to produce a "limited edition," when you factor in all the license costs. On average, each Varese club or FSM title sells around 1,000 units. (The market is now glutted, so sales are down right across the board.) So the label grosses, on average, $20,000 per album. Some do better, some do worse, but you get the picture. Now, even if the union allowed for an un-capped unit run, and these titles were in stores, the return to the label is far lower, and the sales figures would be only marginally better. Ergo, the title would immediately be in the red and never recoup. Using the direct market model, it's possible to break even on most titles, but the profit margin is slim. FSM releases two titles each month not for aesthetic reasons, but for reasons of volume. Two titles, amortized against each other, offers a greater chance of recoupment than does one. Varese has enough volume with its "new" films to cover the shortfall. For labels like Intrada and Screen Archives, it is much more difficult to break even. Record retail, as now most everybody knows, is dead, and soon the studios will have to find other ways to make the release of film music viable. In future, it will be steered toward DVD, the CD's natural bedfellow. I sympathise with everyone who is forced to pay 20 dollars for a narrow-interest soundtrack, but we are investing in a legacy, a history, if you will. The largesse currently shown by a few film studios and dedicated labels will soon be at an end. And then we can look back on this time with nostalgic pleasure as the brief moment when music we thought was lost forever became available. And at "only" $20 dollars a pop!
posted 03-04-2003 09:56 PM PT (US)

jonathan_little Romulan	I was always under the impression that re-use fees expired after a couple of decades. So the musicians are still collecting re-use fees on something recorded in the 1960s?
posted 03-05-2003 05:29 AM PT (US)

Hellstrom Reman	Yes Jonathan, "re-use" or "new-use" as the union prefers to call it, is due on every union movie, regardless of its age. It was paid on Varese's "Rose of Washington Square," which dates from 1939. The union though is not the enemy, and has been amazingly co-operative since Fox began opening its vault doors. Without Fox and their foresight in making a new union deal, there would be far fewer vintage soundtracks to worry about the price of...When Varese gambled on the Club back in the late eighties there was no break on the costs, and it was not unusual to pay upwards of $50,000 in fees. The good news is, it's a lot more reasonable today, but sadly, creating a wider audience for the product has virtually proved impossible.
posted 03-05-2003 07:09 AM PT (US)

PeterK FishChip	I have one wish for Varese's direct marketing approach, and that is that they allocate part of the savings reaped by avoiding the major distributors and hire a guy for 5 hours a week who would handle wholesale "distribution" to the 5 or 6 relatively well-known storefronts strictly focused on selling soundtracks. No one may catch my drift at all, as it's a very perculiar situation few people find themselves in, but if stores like MovieMusic, Intrada, Screen Archives, et al, could carry these for the same price as Varese, more people than not would be happy (not to mention the possibility for selling more than just 1000 copies of these things, as $25 is drawing the line for some seeking these CDs, while $20 is not). Would such a scenario might also rid our cultural wasteland of greedy pushers like Thaxton and his BUYSOUNDTRAX buddies of taking advantage of those people not "in the know" and selling these things on eBay for $40 each? Probably.
posted 03-06-2003 09:04 PM PT (US)

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