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OPERA
A Turkish Delight
OPERA
Two Faces of Igor
EARLY MUSIC
A 17th Century Christmas
RECITAL
Flair and Frustration
CHORAL MUSIC
Welcome Variation
CHAMBER MUSIC
Viola Extravaganza
TRIBUTE
In Memoriam
MUSIC NEWS
Grammy Honors, Nomination for Kronos
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Responses to Our 12/6/05 Question of the Week
By James Keolker
San Francisco Lyric Opera
Die Entführung
aus dem Serail
(12/9/05)
By Lisa Hirsch
San Francisco
Symphony and Chorus
(12/9/05)
By Michelle Dulak Thomson
Magnificat
(12/10/05)
By Jonathan Russell
Richard Stoltzman
Emanuel Ax
(12/7/05)
By Anna Carol Dudley
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorus
(12/11/05)
By Heuwell Tircuit
Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
(12/5/05)
Barbara Shearer
(1936-2005)
By David Whitman
By Janos Gereben
Mickey Butts, Executive Director/Publisher
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“The experience of consumers is our primary concern,” preaches a new message on the Web site of Sony BMG. The manufacturer indeed has reason for concern: Seven class-action lawsuits have targeted Sony BMG so far for sneaking copy-protection software, which many consumer advocates have classified as "malicious" spyware, onto 5 million copies of 52 of their pop CDs.
While this disaster has not yet struck the classical CD market, Sony’s “getting religion” with respect to consumers highlights the fact there is more than just the music that concerns CD buyers. This is especially true for the fastidious clientele interested in classical purchases. Have you had an otherwise excellent concert ruined by annoyances like uncomfortable seats, boring pre-concert lectures, last-minute program changes, inadequate program notes, noisy neighbors, or even unappetizing refreshments or crowded lavatories at the interval? Similar turnoffs unrelated to the music plague CD buyers.
During the short period that “the experience of consumers” is on music companies' radar screens, we can perhaps ask for a little more attention paid to CD defects. It is time to put manufacturers on the hook to make that extra effort to produce CDs that are perfect in every way, not just aurally. Isn’t perfection what we hope for every time we go to a concert?
The path to perfection lies in eliminating the 10 biggest turnoffs about CDs, listed below with suggestions for making things better. (We can safely assume that adding malicious software to your CD is more like a deal-breaker than a simple turnoff.) Those manufacturers who take heed may shore up declining sales and warm the cockles of their customers’ hearts.
#10: Weak customer service. This should really be higher up on the list, but too many people expect no improvement or take their bad fortune out on retailers rather than manufacturers. Manufacturers of high-quality recordings should consider the tastes of those who purchase their products and welcome feedback. CDs should include Web sites and e-mail addresses where defective discs can be exchanged and transgressions can be reported. Meanwhile, somewhere in the CD, manufacturers should provide assurances that input from customers will be acted upon. Politicians provide assurances every day; why can’t CD makers?
#9: Inadequate CD tracking. There are basically two problem areas in this category: (a) overly long tracks and (b) overly short intervals between tracks. Some manufacturers have the unforgivable gall to lump multiple movements in a single track. Some put single 40-minute movements on one track. These transgressors should be locked in a room until they feel a call to nature, then have to wait for the end of their tracks before they can leave. Finally, there are the lamentable occurrences of minimal two- and three-second gaps between pieces, especially in cases in which the first piece is a real gut-wrencher and time is needed for the listener to recover before going on to the next item. Not all intervals between cuts should be the same.
#8: Unconventional box sizes. Some buyers are passionate addicts and completists whose significant others are ready to walk out the door if yet another set of family photos has to be taken off the wall to make room for more CD shelves. We large-scale classical music buyers love to organize and fiddle with our precious collections. But classical CDs in DVD-sized cases are a nonstarter for us. To minimize the number of shelves, we like our CD boxes to be all the same height. But some manufacturers put their big operas and other collections in slightly taller boxes, which makes shelf display tricky, increasing the sprawl of your collection and thus the likelihood of your being sent to the doghouse by your mate.
#7: Thick or awkward booklets. Even if a buyer is fortunate enough to have a medieval rack and pulley system that yanks thick booklets out of conventional jewel boxes, God help them get the booklet back in. Causes for booklet obesity are legion. The most common is multiple translations. In this case, manufacturers should design the booklets so that buyers can tear out all but the language of choice. Another solution is to print only two languages and offer other languages on a Web site clearly labeled in the booklet. Booklet ugliness and awkwardness are other related turnoffs of this category. As for awkwardness, crossover CDs sometimes have no booklets. Instead, a poster-size piece of paper is folded into booklet size. This is useless for reference, and like a map, is hard to figure out how to fold back up. Leave the mapping to Michelin.
#6: Hard-to-file-and-find CDs. For some buyers, the thrill is not only in the listening; it is also in the putting on the shelf. Most classical buyers we know file by composer, but manufacturers do little to help us. Using a microscopic font, they put the “theme” of the CD on the edge and list all the peformers, the instruments they play, their home towns, and their favorite wines. Best practice should be to list the most prominent composer by last name, unless there are more than four of them, and keep the text to one line using the largest font possible. For legibility, the font color should contrast with its background.
#5: Deficient tray cards. The tray card, visible from the back of the jewel case, is the road map for the CD buyer’s drive in Classical County. But what good is a road map with holes in it, glued back together as if there is nothing missing? It is annoying to have to pull out a booklet to see a complete track listing, especially if the booklet is one of those monsters described in #7. All too often, movements are left off. The tray card should display all the at-a-glance reference information that listeners hanker for: track listing, composer names and dates, compositions, dates of composition, and performers.
#4: Hard-to-open wrappers. Now we’re beginning to enter the Twilight Zone of High Frustration for CD buyers. Why are wrappers so impossible to remove? We know, for CDs sold in shops — an increasing rarity in these days of online service — they had some value in deterring casual theft, but is this really a concern nowadays? Some manufacturers have kindly put in pull tabs, but these are usually impossible to find, and harder to grasp if found. Cellophane is notoriously difficult to break into without dynamite. Plastic shrink-wrap is slightly better. For cellophane, the best approach is to slice it with a box cutter. But this can scratch the jewel case, unless it’s one of the more old-fashioned black-tray designs with a scored margin on the left side, which creates an easy place to use an opener safely.
#3: No texts or translations. Now we have that frustrating experience so common when traveling in foreign countries where you don't speak the language: What are people saying? When music is set to words, music alone cannot convey the entire meaning of a work of art. Often, for copyright and/or budgetary reasons, text and translations are missing from releases. Even if one understands the language, the words are often difficult to distinguish. To be fair to customers, manufacturers should include an explanation of why text or translations are not included. If the reason is due to intransigence on the part of copyright owners, it should be revealed to the buyer. But why can’t translation be listed on the Web, or a deal be cut with the copyright owner so texts can be purchased separately?
Worst are the releases where there is every expectation of text but none can be found. When text is included, sometimes translations aren’t. Or there are only plot summaries, not full texts. They should be made available somewhere, even at extra cost. Another problem with translations for set texts is that translators generally opt for more poetic versions that don’t match line for line. This makes the text harder to follow. The music and words, in whatever language, should coincide as much as possible. This is why literal translations are far more helpful than poetic ones for music. Also extremely helpful are transliterations for texts in Chinese or Russian, yet these are all too often not included.
#2: Poor liner notes. Liner notes can be eye-opening, or magnifying-glass-case opening. The worst notes are missing important information and do little to enhance the listening experience. They should not blow horns, or be too abstruse on the one hand or too vacuous on the other. Care should be taken in choosing good writers (the quality of which could alone fill a separate article). But proper liner notes require more than just good writing. Classical CD buyers thrive on certain details and not others. We like to know dates of composition and of recorded performance, the name and short bio of the annotator, pronunciation of key words, and other technical details. The emphasis should be on information that helps with the music. While information on performers can certainly be enlightening, lists of awards and other puffery should be restricted.
#1: Brittle jewel cases. When Peter Doodson developed the jewel case in 1982 for Philips, little did he know that today there would be as many broken jewel cases around as dead droids in a Star Wars movie. Back then, engineers thought that only careful audiophiles would be interested in CDs, so sturdiness must not have been a high priority. Thus we’ve been cursed with snap-off-at-the-slightest-provocation cover-extension tabs where the hinges (“jewels”) are located. Worse, marketers have been pushing clear plastic trays, which are far more brittle than the original black ones. So the interior prongs now break off in a far-too-high percentage of CDs, turning them into rattling maracas.
The answer for this turnoff, too slowly adopted by manufacturers by my reckoning, is the digipak design of cardboard cases with sturdy plastic trays. For pop CDs, users complain that the cardboard doesn’t last long enough, or that the printing wears off. The same happened in the glory days of LPs, but classical-music buyers treated their possessions differently then and do now. Manufacturers should realize that for classical CDs, the digipak is the way to go.
This top-10 list is doubtless incomplete, so we invite you to add your own pet peeves in response to this week's Question of the Week. Perhaps if enough CD buyers raise their voices, especially the most dedicated classical-music customers who spend so much on music, companies will start to pay attention.
(Jeff Dunn is a freelance critic with a B.A. in music and a Ph.D. in geologic education. A composer of piano and vocal music, he is a member of NACUSA, a Bay Area correspondent for the journal 21st-Century Music, and president of Composers Inc.)
©2005 Jeff Dunn, all rights reserved
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