Gramophone

[Alison]

Thanks PJ. Happy Christmas.

Mainly historical recordings then ?.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Regarding the passing of the cover CD, I suspect that it might be an age thing ....young flibbertygibbets running the editorial (and accounting) departments dismissing our views as old-fashioned and boring.

I don't regard it as anything so charitable. It's nothing other than the team concerned being arrogant, thoughtless and incompetent.

[MickyD]

I have to agree with you EA...some of those previous comments by the team are unbelievably rude and show complete disdain for many of their existing readers. When I cancelled my subscription, I wrote to the editor saying he ignored us at his peril. I would dearly love to know how many cancellations there have been since all this took place.

[Parry1912]

I think that there's a very real risk that cultural life is being seen more and more as a game, as if the most important thing in life is not to grow up.
All this is encouraged by the media in general, and journalists in particular, as we are all being persuaded to enjoy increasingly infantile pursuits.

You mean you're not sitting there reading your Harry Potter books, listening to Girls Aloud while you wait for Dr. Who to come on?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm sorry, but I am reading Harry Potter books, but the other pursuits are a different matter.

[PJPJ]

Thanks PJ. Happy Christmas.

Mainly historical recordings then ?.

And a Happy Christmas to you, too, Alison. Yes, historic in the past, but the change of title hints at more reviews of more recent releases in the future. The articles, which go into their subjects in some depth, are all about recorded history. Well worth investigating.

[MickyD]

This is an extract from the latest post on the Gramophone Forum thread:

"The number of people who have access to the Internet/web suggests their online-only strategy (as far as music samples go) is the right one, no matter what existing/long-term subscribers may think - ie, a relatively few possible losses very many more potential gains."

Is this an insider who has access to such information? Whatever, Haymarket must be hoping he is right.

[MickyD]

Well, Haymarket must still want me - my subscription expired a month ago and today I received January's copy in the mail!

[VodkaDilc]

You must be doubly lucky, Micky. Receiving a free Gramophone (debatable, perhaps, if that's a good thing) AND receiving a postal delivery! If you were in the UK you would be enduring yet another Bank Holiday and waiting for tomorrow to receive the first postal delivery since Christmas Eve. (Perhaps the Christmas cards which were delayed by the snow will come tomorrow!!)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

We, the classical music lovers of Britain, should be supporting music magazines like Gramophone, but they should be supporting us, by not insulting our intelligence.

It's as though Gramophone is trying to kill the CD industry, with its OTT promotion of downloads.

[Mahlerei]

EA

I hold no brief for Gramophone but no-one can have failed to notice the number of labels now offering downloads in addition to physical media. In that sense the mag is just reflecting a shift in the recorded music market; whether it's a mere tremor or something more seismic at this stage is difficult to gauge at the moment.

My aversion to the concept of downloads has softened recently, mainly because higher-resolution files are now available, and with the right equipment they can sound just fabulous (see my thread on 2L's downloads). However, as a reviewer I get mine free, whereas punters have to pay through the nose for them. Chandos charge a 50% premium over the CD (for 24/96 files) and 2L charge a whopping 100%-plus for their 24/192 files. That is just extortionate and I cannot fathom why these things should be so expensive.

The point is, many labels now see this as the way forward and I daresay Gramophone does too.

[MickyD]

Mahlerei, I take your point about not sticking in the past, but I think what most people are complaining about is the sudden and totally unforewarned decision by the magazine to go this way. There are various people on the Gramophone Forum who are not at all happy that they signed up for a magazine advertised as carrying a CD, only to see the latter dropped without any notification or any sort of refund available. I suggested that it would have been a much better idea for Gramophone to carry out a survey amongst its readers to see how they felt about this new development before proceeding - that surely would have given the team some idea of whether their readership was enthusiastic or not to embrace the new technology. As it was, they just went ahead and not only disgruntled many faithful readers but also added insult to injury by replying to them as if they were some sort of dinosaur.

VodkaDilc - yes, the post is fine here in France as Christmas and New Year is no big deal - each of the holiday weekends is treated just like a weekend and most people were back at work on Monday 27th!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Perhaps the aim is to stop printing the magazine altogether and expect people to read online too. What gets my goat is the expectation that every reader will have the facilities to obtain what he/she has paid for when buying the magazine.

[Mahlerei]

MickyD

And I take your point too. I stopped reading the mag a couple of years ago because I was one of those disgruntled readers.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Although I still buy Gramophone, I no longer do so with excitement. I live in hope that they will come to their senses before the editorial team destroy this great magazine altogether.