Pink Floyd's "WYWH" SACD almost done (1 Viewer)

[Danny Tse]

Lee, I often wonder about that too. When I look at all the classical titles being released on SACD, I'd think a Pink Floyd remastered SACD would easily outsell them. Then I see Channel Classics releasing a newly-recorded SACD of traditional Chinese music, which has a much more narrower target audience than even western classical music, what gives? The additional cost to remastered/remixed and market a Pink Floyd SACD is minimal given the potential sales on a worldwide basis.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Mastering is not expensive. Does anyone doubt this would sell a million copies as a single inventory reissue?

One wonders who is being abused more here, the music lover or the hapless shareholder in the record/entertainment company. Idiots!

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I have just now developed a hope:

If the Genesis SACDs next year do fairly well, maybe the people behind future Pink Floyd releases will get a clue and move a little bit faster on them.

 

[KurtEP]

I'd love to see some more rock releases on SACD. I did just see that they're going to release the Cowboy Junkies "Whites Off Earth Now." If they can issue a remastered version of something that obscure, WYWH should be a no brainer. I'd kill to get Meddle on SACD...

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I doubt very seriously that this could sell a million copies at any price that would be profitable. CD buyers aren't willing to pay SACD prices and SACD buyers don't exist in that quantity. Over 250,000 would be a big surprise to me. The RIAA sales summary I have seen shows 500,000 for all SACD sales last year.

Chris

 

[Kevin C Brown]

But I don't think that last year would be a good indicator of what SACD *can* do, because honestly, I can't think of a single "good" release in the last few years. (Me, anyway. ) But for example, how many copies of Dark Side of the Moon did they sell? *That* would be a better indicator.

 

[KurtEP]

Well, there have been good releases in classical and jazz, but not a lot in the rock area, except perhaps some of the Clapton releases. Unfortunately, the one of those I have (Derek and the Dominos - Layla) was pretty underwhelming in terms of sound. The Abkco Stones releases sounded pretty good for the most part, but you'd be hard pressed to figure out they were SACD's relying on the packaging alone (of course, that was a few years back, too).

It's hard to read too much into the Dark Side of the Moon sales, just because that's one of the largest selling albums of all time anyway. I think another "big" album such as The Wall could sell well, though.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

So you think this could sell a million also? Pretty wild imaginations here.

Chris

 

[Phil A]

Does the RIAA include internet sales? I'm not positive but don't think so. I agree SACD is a small niche format that many buyers are not willing to pay a premium for. Same with DVD-A. The advantage of DVD-A is that HT is such a huge part of the market and people seem to want surround more than 2-channel (not me personally) and a surround compatible DVD-V mix along with normal PCM might be more appealing to the masses as long as there is no real premium over CDs. I prefer the simplicity of SACD in being able to select between mixes (stereo and surround on many players) and the fact I prefer 2-channel most of the time. The biggest complaint I hear about music from people is that it is overpriced. You can just look at threads on this forum in the bargain area about cheap $5 DVDs at Wal-Mart where people can get a mainstream studio release that is not current. The same does not generally exist on the music side. You don't see 18 month old CDs from name artists in a $5 bin.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I didn't say that. I said that last year's sales of SACDs in general would not be a good predictor of how well WYWH could do. But DSOTM would be.

I have no idea how well it would sell. But I would bet it would sell better than 90% of the SACDs, DVD-As, and DualDiscs out there.

 

[LanceJ]

I wonder how many people bought the DSOTM hybrid sacd *only* because it was an sacd. And who bought it simply because it was the 30th anniversary edition and for that edition's new artwork?

 

[Hartwig Hanser]

I know at least one: me. I am more of a classical guy, but I read some reviews of this album and decided to give it a try. ONLY because it was multichannel.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

I have many copies in various forms, this one I bought due to its being 5.1 (SACD is great, too, but I'm sure I would have enjoyed a good DD/DTS mix). If I want artwork, I look at the LP.

I'd certainly like to see WYWH in a hi-rez/5.1 mix. I think its potential is even greater than that of DSOTM...I find it more "atmospheric", if you will.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

"I doubt very seriously that this could sell a million copies at any price that would be profitable."

You don't understand music economics or the Pink Floyd audience then. There are lots of dollars of profit in every disc sold. On a big release like this, they could get the all-in manufacturing costs down to $0.50 to $0.75 even as a hybrid SACD. There are over a million SACD players out there and many PF fans would buy this release automatically.

I would doubt the cost of mastering this for Guthrie exceeded $200K.

We know that DSOTM sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide-I think I read 600K+ units. Now assume $4 in per disc profit (remember you have a higher selling price as well) and you get $2.4 million. Plenty of money in this. Now add in a carry-over effect to sales of the entire catalog.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I think I understand economics and I am a Pink Floyd fan, I bought two copies of the SACD, fortunately only one is the Crest cracker that is anticipated to fall apart in the future but it still works. I don't believe any SACD has sold anywhere near a million and "Wish You Were Here" will almost certainly not sell anywhere near a million.

Chris

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Probably most of them. The reason why is that anyone who wanted the CD, probably already has it because they bought it years ago.

There was another remaster in the mid '90's, so there probably weren't many who bought it *again*.

And we all know from Steve Hoffman's site , that in a lot of cases, it's the earlier versions of CDs that sound better, not the later ones that have their volume boosted and are limited or compressed.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Likewise. I have the Harvest version of the CD from the early 90s, which I have read somewhere is the best-sounding CD version save for the specialty MoFi version, so I would not have bought a 30th anniversary remasetr, but for the fact it was on SACD (same would have applied if it had been on DVD-A, I'm not fussed either way). Heck, it was the disc that got me to buy a universal player.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

I'm not sure if it would sell a million copies or not but I think several hundred thousand would be realistic. For the most part they make money on every one they sell at that reasonable volume so again I think the labels should release the album and make money for everyone.

P.S. The Harvest pressing I have is the best redbook version up until the SACD. I was not impressed by the MoFi.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Or am I confusing that with the Gold Ultradisc? Or are they the same thing? I vaguely recall that the Harvest is said to be the best-sounding "regular" CD, if that makes sense, whilst there were some specialty releases (which were pricey, naturally), that may have sounded better, but weren't exactly readily available (nor affordable to a then-college student)

 

[Ron Reda]

I always felt the MoFi was the best pressing that I'd heard (never heard the Harvest pressing) until the SACD. It crushes the MoFi.