The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

HOLY S#$%. That's heck of a lot of money for a few minutes of music.
John

They are a labor of love and beautifully made.

I wished I could sell them for $10/piece but that's not possible unless I am willing to throw money at it.
As mentioned earlier, they are made by Vulcan in England. Duncan Miller does a fantastic work but cannot do it all just for the fun of it.
My calculation is pretty simple and not a secret. It's all based on the requirement of selling 10 titles to get break-even. Before that, it's practically all on me:

$240 for 10 copies
$390 master mould + title end + 2 copies
$90 box labels / stamps
$40 shipping to my address
$60 (or more) royalties
= $820 for the first 12 copies

These prices are always subject to fluctuation due to daily exchange rates. 2 copies come with the master, which I usually keep myself as a reference. Dividing the total by 12, it's ca. $68 per cylinder for that first lot. So, I end up at about $12 per cylinder, which just pays for the two records to keep.
What I left out of the calculation is my labour for aquiring the music sources and making the labels.

Each title requires that investment total before I can release anything. Some titles sell are selling well, others barely 10 copies after months or years. So, it's all about proper average. And I like to put the money right away into a future title after becoming break even.

So, yes it's indeed a heck of a lot of money to lay out and I better be confident with what I am going for.

Norman,
You're doing us all a great service and we appreciate it.
I might also add that, unlike groceries, no one has to buy them, but, we will.
Thank you.

Thanks Norman, I'm looking forward to picking up my copy at Wayne!

And please keep comments here free of politics. This isn't the place.

Sean

welshfield wrote:HOLY S#$%. That's heck of a lot of money for a few minutes of music.
John

A lot of money or a steal at double the price? Admittedly one can find plenty of cylinders in good to excellent condition, including titles like "The Rosary", "Snow Deer","Silver Threads among the Gold", etcetera for a few dollars each and sonically they sound fine. What's being offered here though are the most premium titles, the originals of which would sell for several hundred dollars each if you could even find them.

I own about ¾ of the titles offered and am totally happy with them. It's quite unlikely I'll every be able to acquire originals of any of the same.

youTube does not do them justice but here's one example anyway

Enjoy!

[youtubehd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgJQiN996PI[/youtubehd]

I got Norm's"Kansas City Kitty",and I love it.I'm looking forward to his reissue of Sophie's 1911 Edison recording of "Some Of These Days"! edisonplayer

I think 'Some Of These Days' would sell like crazy.

Norm should do 'In The Land Of Harmony' that would sell like hotcakes.

Valecnik wrote:

welshfield wrote:HOLY S#$%. That's heck of a lot of money for a few minutes of music.
John

A lot of money or a steal at double the price? Admittedly one can find plenty of cylinders in good to excellent condition, including titles like "The Rosary", "Snow Deer","Silver Threads among the Gold", etcetera for a few dollars each and sonically they sound fine. What's being offered here though are the most premium titles, the originals of which would sell for several hundred dollars each if you could even find them.

I own about ¾ of the titles offered and am totally happy with them. It's quite unlikely I'll every be able to acquire originals of any of the same.

youTube does not do them justice but here's one example anyway

Enjoy!

[youtubehd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgJQiN996PI[/youtubehd]

That's just too damn loud. I'm sorry. Kids have to get to school, fields to plow in the morning. We can't have this nonsense.