CD notes and downloads

[Dave2002]

Downloads are now becoming more common, and sometimes there can be good savings.
One area which seems problematic though is whether the CD/DVD/SACD notes are available as downloads.
Some labels, such as Chandos, provide the notes as free downloads from their websites, but others don't appear to have an obvious mechanism for this.
It wouldn't even be so bad if one had to pay something for the notes, but are we now beginning to see a situation where notes and other material (e.g libretti)
will be hard/impossible to get as we move into the download era?

Today I'm seriously thinking of buying CDs simply in order to get notes, which might otherwise be impossible to obtain - and I might even try visiting a store
first to see if they've got relevant CDs in stock.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This move towards downloads is not necessarily customer led. It's rather like the self-service checkout at Tesco. You do the work; they take the money. Withsleeve notes, that just adds to the problem.

[Stephen Smith]

I believe a "complaint is a gift" to the seller - so I do on occasion (and where the recipient is deserving of input others might pay researchers to obtain) give feedback, in a positive way I hope. I've bought a number of 50% reduced downloads on the hourly offer at " The Classical Shop", althugh their abandonment of their points reward scheme (and lack of worthwhile downloads, much of the time)makes this less attractive. And a non-discounted download price of £10 for FLAC is also unattractive.
The lack of the booklet info has frustrated me and I did have a list of donwloads I ruled out for this reason. I thought I'd give my reaction direct to the small label- here it is with their reply. the surpsise is over the cost of supplying the text / info. I haven't taken this up, but I would never have thought that the cost of an electronic file (of a booklet that has been printed in the physical domain) has a high cost in digital scanning and transmission.
Anyway, despite my sympathy, I remain unwilling to buy without the info. Here is the email and reply:

I might have taken up an offer for this download on The Classical Shop website......
Contemporary composer- no explanatory notes available. The Classical Shop website tell me they try to encourage record labels to provide the PDF files.
I was tempted to give this a try at £5, I don't follow contemp music. I must be part of your target audience. But I won't buy just to listen, but be left in ignorance about the pieces, the performers and the composer.
I'm sure this would mean more work for you, but if downloads are to work, then the booklet info needs to be part of the package.
Reply:

Thanks for your message. I can assure you that pdf files for all our titles (except some older ones we acquired where there are no digital graphics files) are made available to all the digital carriers who supply them and if TheClassicalShop does not offer this booklet for some reason then I suggest trying ...........
We are in the midst of transferring all digital distribution globally to ,,,,,,,,, so there may possibly be some short term glitches.

The problem for record companies is that over 75 % of our cost goes into the booklet (not the actual physical CD) and to provide this effectively free is causing quite a few labels (not us) to reconsider the system. Currently given the actual production and recording costs we make a loss of $3 on each downloaded album.

(.........back to work now)

[gurnemanz]

"The problem for record companies is that over 75 % of our cost goes into the booklet (not the actual physical CD)"

Thanks for quoting that reply you received. This is why we get these large box sets for low prices but without full notes or vocal texts. I often spend a bit of time searching for this material online and storing it in the database with the CD details. It can, of course, end up being more interesting than what the record company might have provided.

I haven't downloaded very much music. Mostly it has been from Hyperion who, like Chandos, are excellent at making notes and texts available online.

I still get great pleasure from buying a well-presented, visually appealing CD with full notes and texts, e.g. this one from last year, and don't resent paying full price when such care has been taken.

[Don Petter]

Worse than the absence of notes - The last item I downloaded from a commercial site (a double CD, and NC) didn't even have any means of acquiring a track title list. I eventually obtained one by a screen capture from another vendor's site, but have never been able to find the notes. (Admittedly it was a lot cheaper than buying the actual CDs, but it does seem something of a drawback.)

What happens with major sources, such as Amazon downloads? Do they make any paperwork available?

[richardfinegold]

[
What happens with major sources, such as Amazon downloads? Do they make any paperwork available?[/QUOTE]

never seen a note with either an Amazon or an itunes download. HD Tracks does provide notes as a PDF.

[richardfinegold]

I have always had a problem reading the very small fonts in CD booklets. LPs always were better than CDs for notes ,if nothing else. And the companies that do try to provide quality notes in their jewell boxes usually make them to big to be easily repeatedly removed and reinserted (try any Jordi Savall recording).

[Rosie55]

I am always grateful to have the paper in my hand as I listen to a new CD. For me, the liner notes are part of the experience. Mind you I am of the generation where I cannot get myself to download newspapers, I have to hold the real thing in my hands.
One of the most fascinating liner note essays I have read in recent years was the Gramophone writer Geraint Lewis' notes for a disc of Alun Hoddinott song cycles and folksongs featuring soprano Claire Booth and tenor Nicky Spence. Detailed notes, written with obvious knowledge and a passion for the subject matter.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hoddinott-Landscapes-Song-Cycles-Folksongs/dp/B0041XSB6C

[Ferretfancy]

I'm currently listening to a range of fascinating performances in a 13 CD box of Clara Haskil recordings. There are a number of different performances of the same work, and so it is quite important to have the recording dates available. The booklet gives them, but they are assembled on the last page in completely random order, so I have had to do detective work and produce a chronology to print and put in the box.

This confusion of dates and venues, often in extremely small print, occurs quite frequently in such compilations, it would seem almost as an afterthought.