Hits of the 70s / Soundboards - the voice of sanity

For all of the complaints, anyone wiling to seriously address:


(2) Why this FTD is a best seller?

Since you know it's a best seller, what are the numbers?

(1) How Sony would market a UK-only, '70s hit collection for worldwide retail?

The Hits FTD is useless to me, but I've wondered that same question on the eariler threads. A few people on here have suggested it should have come out on the main label.. a 70s compilation with THAT artwork! Whatever one thinks of Sony, that would be an insane release, and like throwing company money into the sea.

(1) How Sony would market a UK-only, '70s hit collection for worldwide retail?

The Hits FTD is useless to me, but I've wondered that same question on the eariler threads. A few people on here have suggested it should have come out on the main label.. a 70s compilation with THAT artwork! Whatever one thinks of Sony, that would be an insane release, and like throwing company money into the sea.

Exactly.

For all of the complaints, anyone wiling to seriously address:


(2) Why this FTD is a best seller?

Since you know it's a best seller, what are the numbers?

There have been numerous reports by others here regarding the popularity of this title.

Please try to stay on-topic.

For all of the complaints, anyone wiling to seriously address:

(1) How Sony would market a UK-only, '70s hit collection for worldwide retail?
(2) Why this FTD is a best seller?

The same reason why "The Jungle Room sessions" was a huge FTD hit, people really love 70's Elvis.

I think they have lost the plot though.

FTD is nearly at the end of "classic" albums types of releases.

We don't have too many to go anyway.

So, the focus should stop being on previous albums and more on unrelease material, such
as concerts and rehearsals and home recordings.
That's what I want from a collectors label.

For all of the complaints, anyone wiling to seriously address:


(2) Why this FTD is a best seller?

Since you know it's a best seller, what are the numbers?

And also how many of the ftd's of HOTS were actually manufactured ? Lets see if Johnno has the balls to answer

Since you know it's a best seller, what are the numbers?

There have been numerous reports by others here regarding the popularity of this title.

Please try to stay on-topic.

So you really don't know how many units it's sold.
Too bad, I thought you knew everything.

(1) How Sony would market a UK-only, '70s hit collection for worldwide retail?

The Hits FTD is useless to me, but I've wondered that same question on the eariler threads. A few people on here have suggested it should have come out on the main label.. a 70s compilation with THAT artwork! Whatever one thinks of Sony, that would be an insane release, and like throwing company money into the sea.

Firstly, no one is arguing that this release should have been re-issued at all. The point being made is that if it simply had to be re-issued, that it makes more sense as a budget main label title and not a premium collectors label release. As for how it would be marketed by Sony, perhaps the same way they "marketed" the budget CD re-issues of old Camden albums (2006, 2008) and the handful of budget soundtrack re-issues (2010).

But, if it is indeed a best-seller for FTD then it beggars belief. They should release any old rubbish because the FTD consumer base will lap it all up!

For all of the complaints, anyone wiling to seriously address:

(1) How Sony would market a UK-only, '70s hit collection for worldwide retail?
(2) Why this FTD is a best seller?

(1) By releasing it.
(2) It is not.

(1) How Sony would market a UK-only, '70s hit collection for worldwide retail?

The Hits FTD is useless to me, but I've wondered that same question on the eariler threads. A few people on here have suggested it should have come out on the main label.. a 70s compilation with THAT artwork! Whatever one thinks of Sony, that would be an insane release, and like throwing company money into the sea.

Firstly, no one is arguing that this release should have been re-issued at all. The point being made is that if it simply had to be re-issued, that it makes more sense as a budget main label title and not a premium collectors label release. As for how it would be marketed by Sony, perhaps the same way they "marketed" the budget CD re-issues of old Camden albums (2006, 2008) and the handful of budget soundtrack re-issues (2010).

The budget-priced US-only Camden CDs were based on albums that, whilst dubious, were very popular in a very large country (the US). So they were put out for the potentially quite large US nostalgia market. The Camden LPs sold well in the UK too, but the CDs weren't released in the UK, because it's a relatively small market. And besides, the CD format's unimportance to the general public has continued to increase in the years since the Camden CDs were released officially.

The budget soundtrack CDs WERE released in the UK, only to end up on sale for virtually nothing online, and in overstock sections bricks & mortar shops, in my city at least!

One original Camden LP remains unreleased on CD in the U.S. "C'mon Everybody." Sure wish SONY would release it so my Camden collection would be complete. But since it hasn't happened by now I guess it probably won't.

Maybe FTD will issue it!

I think there's definitely a space in the main label catalogue for a compilation of Elvis' 70's work. It's a period that does generate interest, and whether it was this compilation, or a newly produced one, it would certainly have sold on the main label.

I'm 100% behind Matthew on this - a premium priced FTD featuring nothing but previously released studio masters makes mugs of us all. The Hits Of The 70's album, in the years when the singles didn't always make it on to albums, was a good idea and served it's purpose. At the time, it was the go to release for the studio version of I've Lost You, I'm Leavin', Rags To Riches and American Trilogy. Today though, there's absolutely no logic to this being a £20 FTD - none whatsoever. At £9.99, on the retail shelves before Xmas, with some better packaging though, it would have been a great stocking filler and just might have given an Xmas chart success. I'd definitely have replaced the miserable Take Good Care With Her with I've Got A Thing About You Baby too, but that's a different discussion.

I do agree with the posters who've commented on the overly negative reviews of 70's released from ETMAHM too - it ruins an otherwise excellent magazine, and they should get someone a bit more objective to write them.

It is a shame there isn't a good 70s CD compilation, but in Europe the Walk a Mile in My Shoes set reissue is only about £12 to £15 brand new, for 5CDs, so Sony would have trouble charging more than about RRP £3 for a 1CD Best Of the 70s in the current European CD market. £3 RRP would be a dealer price of about £1, so I guess it's a waste of their time & money. In a market where you can get that WAMIMS 5CD for £12 new, surely that illustrates to even the most casual observer the sales/price potential for 70s Elvis CDs on the main label is not high. Prince From etc is an edition of what, 5000? And that's for a bargain-priced 3 disc set. 10 years ago that set would have been about £29.99 RRP.

I think there's definitely a space in the main label catalogue for a compilation of Elvis' 70's work. It's a period that does generate interest, and whether it was this compilation, or a newly produced one, it would certainly have sold on the main label.

I'm 100% behind Matthew on this - a premium priced FTD featuring nothing but previously released studio masters makes mugs of us all. The Hits Of The 70's album, in the years when the singles didn't always make it on to albums, was a good idea and served it's purpose. At the time, it was the go to release for the studio version of I've Lost You, I'm Leavin', Rags To Riches and American Trilogy. Today though, there's absolutely no logic to this being a £20 FTD - none whatsoever. At £9.99, on the retail shelves before Xmas, with some better packaging though, it would have been a great stocking filler and just might have given an Xmas chart success. I'd definitely have replaced the miserable Take Good Care With Her with I've Got A Thing About You Baby too, but that's a different discussion.

I do agree with the posters who've commented on the overly negative reviews of 70's released from ETMAHM too - it ruins an otherwise excellent magazine, and they should get someone a bit more objective to write them.

Volcano, you forget that the 50s masters is also £10-15, as are the 60s masters, and yet Legacy editions from those eras presumably sold OK and contained a fraction of what is on those sets.

There is much baulking about selling a set at mainstream over here with "that cover", but it's that cover which people bought by the truckload in the mid to late 70s in the UK and that would possibly be bought again by people who owned that album way back when. There wouldn't be much cost in putting together that collection - no outtakes to remaster, all the masters already there to use etc. And, as has been pointed out, there is no decent single or double CD of 70s hits. Remember that Sony put out the Real Elvis Presley 3CD set for a fiver a couple of years back.

Maybe FTD will issue it!

But then you run the risk of it being released 5% too slow.

Maybe FTD will issue it!

But then you run the risk of it being released 5% too slow.

Camden albums were quite short, so that may not be a bad thing.

Since you know it's a best seller, what are the numbers?

There have been numerous reports by others here regarding the popularity of this title.

Please try to stay on-topic.

So you really don't know how many units it's sold.
Too bad, I thought you knew everything.

Nice rude reply.

No one knows "everything," but if one compares our forum input, I suspect we know who is ahead.

Last edited by drjohncarpenter on Wed Dec 12, 2012 1:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

For all of the complaints, anyone wiling to seriously address:

(1) How Sony would market a UK-only, '70s hit collection for worldwide retail?
(2) Why this FTD is a best seller?

(1) By releasing it.

My question is about marketing the product. A release is not marketing the product.

Thank you.

---

Once again I tried to engage in intelligent discourse on this very overplayed topic by asking pertinent questions, and once again those who have chosen to reply have chosen another path.

No one can say I did not try.

For all of the complaints, anyone wiling to seriously address:

(1) How Sony would market a UK-only, '70s hit collection for worldwide retail?
(2) Why this FTD is a best seller?

(1) By releasing it.

My question is about marketing the product. A release is not marketing the product.

Thank you.

---

Once again I tried to engage in intelligent discourse on this very overplayed topic by asking pertinent questions, and once again those who have chosen to reply have chosen another path.

No one can say I did not try.

A Cd with the title "Hits of the 70s" is rather self-explanatory whether you know the original LP or not, and no matter what country you are in. Even if you live in America and never knew the existence of the 70s LP, a CD with this title is hardly going to cause a potential buyer to ask "what on earth is that?" or to think "I'm not buying that" just because the original LP was British.

Hits Of The 70s is a main label type of product, not an FTD type of product - if fans believe that it is the type of product that should be on FTD they only have themselves to blame for future redundant titles at premium pricing. "In my view" Gordon has this completely wrong.

Spot on.

+ 1

+1

Or Gordon Minto has gone insain or the complete fanbase got so spoilt after over 100 FTDs that they completely lost sight on the initial idea behind FTD and what content should justify a top retail price of E 20 or USD 30. You choose.

No one knows "everything,"...

You're making progress.

Back on topic please.

For all of the complaints, anyone wiling to seriously address:

(1) How Sony would market a UK-only, '70s hit collection for worldwide retail?
(2) Why this FTD is a best seller?

(1) By releasing it.

My question is about marketing the product. A release is not marketing the product.

Thank you.

---

Once again I tried to engage in intelligent discourse on this very overplayed topic by asking pertinent questions, and once again those who have chosen to reply have chosen another path.

No one can say I did not try.

A Cd with the title "Hits of the 70s" is rather self-explanatory whether you know the original LP or not, and no matter what country you are in. Even if you live in America and never knew the existence of the 70s LP, a CD with this title is hardly going to cause a potential buyer to ask "what on earth is that?" or to think "I'm not buying that" just because the original LP was British.

Thank you, Poormadpeter. That’s my point exactly. Too bad John can’t fathom even such a simple concept.

A Cd with the title "Hits of the 70s" is rather self-explanatory whether you know the original LP or not, and no matter what country you are in. Even if you live in America and never knew the existence of the 70s LP, a CD with this title is hardly going to cause a potential buyer to ask "what on earth is that?" or to think "I'm not buying that" just because the original LP was British.

Exactly - if you take the contents of the new FTD, give it a nicely desgined over, and market it on the main label at £10, I'm sure you'd have a success on your hands. While the purists may salivate over the Sun recordings, the 70's era Elvis still resonates and is both the image many associate him, and the music that many appreciate. With the MSG billboard in times square, we had an image of Elvis, with his cape outstretched, looking triumphant, that couldn't help but make people curious to know more about this often misunderstood period.

The logic that if the complete 70's masters is on sale for £15 means you can only sell this for £5, then I think that's flawed - after all, we've had succession of greatest hits type packages, most recently the I Am An Elvis Fan project, and I think this would have more takers. Every one knows the 50's rock and roll hits - this would be a great entry point for the later Elvis.

The FTD label is for collectors, there is nothing collectable about this Hits of the 70s other than its Elvis. There was no reason to release it on FTD and then they release PFAP to the general public plus a legacy release, this makes no sense at all.