[rollei_list] Re: Large Format film availability
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Jensen" <jwjensen356@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 1:10 PM
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: Large Format film availability
Premium pricing for vinyl, I suppose so but in a way, not so bad. I saw a new pressing of Gaite Parisienne (Boston Pops, Arthur Fiedler) at $27 for vinyl. I have the same mono disc purchased for about $5 in the mid 50s . Considering inflation, 1958 to 2008, that's quite OK. Which really means to me that the $5 then was a big bite into the pocketbook. Interestingly, the new pressing is on thick vinyl which should be less prone to warping. In an internet record website I saw the equivalent in CD format for $9.95. (Amazon has it for $11.98). 

John
The higher cost of the record may be due to several factors. For one thing vinyl is now a specialty item for which a high price can be demanded. Secondly, the production facilities for vinyl records must certainly be of very low volume compared to what was available before the advent of digital discs. At the time I was involved with the custom recording business there were many alternatives for getting records made in the Los Angeles area, I have been away from this business for a very long time now so I am not current on what is available but suspect its pretty limited. At the time I was active the cost of producing an LP excepting the cost of mastering it was about $1.00 each in quantities of around 200. At higher quantities the prices dropped. My memory is that at around 1000 the price per disc was no more than fifty cents. This would have included plain labels but not packaging. The cost of packaging could easily exceed the cost of the record depending on the nature of the printing. A plain white envelope was about fifty cents but a four-color printed envelope or foldable album could cost several times the record cost. There were a number of local production houses who would press anything from maybe 25 discs up to a few thousand. For greater quantities one could use the custom record production offered by major labels, for very large quantities they were very cheap. I suspect the price of having a custom record produced from an original source is considerably more now simply because it has become such a limited market. LP production has never stopped because they are needed for disco use and because of specialty audiofile production but facilities for production of multi-millions of pressings must certainly be a thing of the past. BTW, the production methods for LP's remained mostly hand work although there was some automated pressing equipment. EP's (45's to you) were originally designed for injection molding and automatic production was much more common than for Lp's. 

Yours for a hot biscuit at midnight...

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Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
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