Post by Lochiel July 10, 2013 (3281 of 4131)
|
|
Well, if it's any consolation, I bought EndBeginning today. It looks like a great disc!
|
|
|
Post by elifeld July 11, 2013 (3282 of 4131)
|
|
bissie said:
Actually, the story goes like this:
I discovered Leif Ove on Iceland in 1976 (Nordic Music Days), when he was 16 or 17, and immediately offered him a recording contract. So we discussed repertoire, conditions and everything else, shook hands, he, his agent, and I, and in my "Texan" book, that is a contract.
Then I started getting him the orchestra for the promised Prok 3, and managed within a matter of weeks. So I wrote happily to his agent, and the big silence started. There was no way I could get in contact with him - he was always in a meeting - and in the end of the day I could read in the newspaper that he had signed Leif Ove exclusively for Virgin. That became EMI, and now he is working for SONY. And BIS, occasionally (he also participates in CD-428 with chamber music by Nielsen).
Oh well, he was just a kid, but I haven't talked even once to his agent after that. Actually, ex-agent - what goes around comes around.
Robert
Bissie,
You should really write a book about BIS and all of this stuff you've experienced over the years managing BIS. I find these little tales really intriguing.
Even though I only buy physical discs nowadays, I'm subscribed to the eClassical newsletter and check the "Daily Deals" every day just because I enjoy reading that little backstory you provide about the recording of the day.
Just a thought. :)
elifeld
|
|
|
Post by bissie July 12, 2013 (3283 of 4131)
|
|
Moved from the Codaex (not Codeax) Thread
sibelius2 said:
But I think we're all fortunate that Robert is a good businessman, and his company is in a strong enough position where this sort of thing is painful but not disastrous.
Euell Neverno said:
My impression is that BIS is not in as a strong financial position today as it has been in the past.
Waiting for a distribution in bankruptcy of the assets of a business with multiple creditors is usually a fairly lengthy wait. Meanwhile the bankrupt's assets must be preserved also at high cost. In any case, where a producer has access to product, the objective would be to transfer the product to another distributor as quickly as possible. But again, the real issue seems to be cash flow.
======================================
In a way it is interesting to see our financial matters being discussed on the internet by 2 good persons.
Both are right.
I am a conscientious businessman in that I always make absolutely sure that I can pay all debts at any time. It shall not - and it will not - happen that any creditor should whistle or even have to wait even one day for money from us. It is against all my business principles, and I stand with my name behind it. There is a true and funny story about this - see later.
We have, to my recollection, never ever been late with a payment to anyone, if we have received the invoice, and we have never bilked anyone.
But, having in a very short time been hit with bankruptcies/cessations of business by the distributors in the following countries:
Belgium - France - Greece - Holland - Ireland - Italy - Luxemburg - Spain and USA
I must admit that this has been testing the validity of my business principles quite severely, since we have been/will lose quite some serious money - and the chain of bankruptcies may not even have stopped yet.
I am proud that my way of doing business stood the test, but to say that we are not in a worse shape than before these bankruptcies would be idle and untrue. It will influence us and our production, unless people start buying again. In the USA this may have been a blessing in disguise in the long run, since clearly Naxos of USA is a far better distributor than Qualiton - it is only that I gave a firm handshake promise to Qualiton 35 yars ago, and I keep my promises.
Now to the story, which proves that a spotless reputation is a good thing to have.
In the beginning of the CD era there was a severe bottleneck situation in that the basically only factory in Europe, Polygram in Hannover, Germany, simply couldn't give sufficient production capacity. So I requested a meeting with Panasonic in Osaka, Japan, to get some capacity. I came there, and was talking to higher and higher people up their food chain, until I landed with their shachoh, general manager. They knew about BIS - we were the first company in the world to completely jettison LP:s - but, when it came to payments, they had their principles - everything must be paid with LoC (Letter of Credit). Now, for those who remember, that is an idiotically cumbersome and very expensive way to make payments. I had done it a few times and pledged to myself never to do it again. So there was an impasse, and we had a long discussion about it. In the end I told him (and remember, I was the one who wanted something out of them) that I would not do the LoC, and would he sit there and tell me to my face that I couldn't be trusted??? I gave him a few references and asked him to have me checked out, and could we please have a final meeting tomorrow?
Tomorrow came, and a smiling managing director told me that he had decided to send whatever I wanted on open credit.
And here is the stinger: even Panasonic's own daughter company in Switzerland had to pay any shipments from its own parent company with an LoC.
THAT reputation I am not giving up for anything, anyone or any reason.
Robert
|
|
|
Post by bissie July 12, 2013 (3284 of 4131)
|
|
elifeld said:
Bissie,
You should really write a book about BIS and all of this stuff you've experienced over the years managing BIS. I find these little tales really intriguing.
Even though I only buy physical discs nowadays, I'm subscribed to the eClassical newsletter and check the "Daily Deals" every day just because I enjoy reading that little backstory you provide about the recording of the day.
Just a thought. :)
elifeld
I have thought about it, and thanks for the compliment. However, I just don't know when - I need my 4 hours of sleep.
And I have read some other books by famous producers, and they tend to get exceedingly boring after a while "and then I recorded xx in yy. That was a nice recording and she liked what I did. And then....".
Of course, if I were to divulge the real truth, for instance the person, who required (this was not for BIS) 1'188 edits to get through an LP (about one edit for every 3 seconds of music, and I did in on fixed price!!!), or which recordings I refused to publish on artistic grounds and that have found their way to other, very famous labels, or the artist, who managed to swear uninterrupedly for 4 full minutes in three different languages without ever repeating herself, or how I tricked a very famous and intemperately obnoxious conductor into a situation, where he had to apologize in front of the complete orchestra, or when I very inadvisedly produced a recording, when I was totally blocked in my ears due to a cold, so that I couldn't even distinguish between a flute and a clarinet, some artists would run for the nearest lawyer, and I cannot see how such a book would be interesting without these details...
Robert
|
|
|
|
|
|
"bissie said:
I discovered Leif Ove on Iceland in 1976 (Nordic Music Days), when he was 16 or 17, and immediately offered him a recording contract. ... So I wrote happily to his agent, and the big silence started....and in the end of the day I could read in the newspaper that he had signed Leif Ove exclusively for Virgin. That became EMI, and now he is working for SONY. And BIS, occasionally (he also participates in CD-428 with chamber music by Nielsen)."
This probably has nothing to do with the fact that Andsnes is Norwegian and Robert is a Swede. Oh, those Vikings. :-)
|
|
|
Post by bissie July 13, 2013 (3286 of 4131)
|
|
OT!!!
Since I wrote the post (3 above) I have been thinking about a linguistic question.
LoC means Letter of Credit.
When I write:
...had to pay with ?? LoC, what should be where the ?? are?
The "LoC" is an abbreviation, but if someone should read the sentence out, surely they would read out the words Letter of Credit (who says AFAIK - they would say "as far as I know"). OTOH, perhaps in this case people would read the letters L-O-C only.
So do I use "a" or "an"??? Are both correct, or is there a rule for this?
Help, please.
Robert
|
|
|
Post by Chris July 13, 2013 (3287 of 4131)
|
|
bissie said:
OT!!!
Since I wrote the post (3 above) I have been thinking about a linguistic question.
LoC means Letter of Credit.
When I write:
...had to pay with ?? LoC, what should be where the ?? are?
The "LoC" is an abbreviation, but if someone should read the sentence out, surely they would read out the words Letter of Credit (who says AFAIK - they would say "as far as I know"). OTOH, perhaps in this case people would read the letters L-O-C only.
So do I use "a" or "an"??? Are both correct, or is there a rule for this?
Help, please.
Robert
A letter but an apple.
There is a rule.
But with the growing distribution problems of physical discs you seem to suffer.
Why do you still release some titles on SACD first instead of as downloads?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
bissie said:
When I write:
...had to pay with ?? LoC, what should be where the ?? are?
...do I use "a" or "an"??
"a LOC" as you say, since the readers will not read that as an abbreviation only (as "an El-Oh-See"). Follow the way it's read, what the noun actually is (it's not "L-O-C" but "letter of credit").
But neither article is really necessary if you're talking about it on a general level ("We want to use LOC to...," as opposed to "at that point a LoC was sent out...") and you've already defined/explained your abbreviation somewhere, which you have likely done when using it for the first time since LOC can mean many different things.
Think of "Made in USA," as opposed to "Made in the USA."
Note, though, that when talking about LOCs as a payment instrument you'd rather say "everything had to be paid by letter of credit" than "with LOC" or "with a LOC." So no article there, since you talk about the method and not some individual LOC your bank has issued, and instead of "with" it's then "by."
|
|
|
Post by bissie July 13, 2013 (3290 of 4131)
|
|
Polarius T said:
"a LOC" as you say, since the readers will not read that as an abbreviation only (as "an El-Oh-See"). Follow the way it's read, what the noun actually is (it's not "L-O-C" but "letter of credit").
But neither article is really necessary if you're talking about it on a general level ("We want to use LOC to...," as opposed to "at that point a LoC was sent out...") and you've already defined/explained your abbreviation somewhere, which you have likely done when using it for the first time since LOC can mean many different things.
Think of "Made in USA," as opposed to "Made in the USA."
Note, though, that when talking about LOCs as a payment instrument you'd rather say "everything had to be paid by letter of credit" than "with LOC" or "with a LOC." So no article there, since you talk about the method and not some individual LOC your bank has issued, and instead of "with" it's then "by."
Well, thank you, but, then, how do you do with MO??
It means "modus operandi" but here people say both that and "mo" as "em.oh".
So what does one use when writing about a/an "mo"???
English aint that simple. Funny that this gets discussed by two Swedes (one of which misunderstood the question) and a Finn...
Kumma juttu, ettei englantilaiset vastaavat.
Robert
|
|
