Manufacturers Cite Efforts to Meet Needs
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Two States Toughen Penalties For Piracy: Retailers Look For More Catalog Promos: Bootleggers Indicted Manufacturers Cite Efforts To Meet Needs NEW YORK - Penalties for the un- dising catalog is a smart thing to do," said tributors, parent company of the 23 -unit authorized duplication of sound recordings by Mark Mehler & Ken Terry Russ Solomon, president of the west coast - Sound Warehouse chain in the southwest, have been stiffened by new laws recently based Tower Records chain, one of the na- noted that retailers often "fight a losing bat- passed in Florida and New Hampshire. NEW YORK - In the first 14 months of the tion's most aggressive catalog merchan tle" in attempting to gain financial support The statutes classify unauthorized Cash Box Retail Price Survey, ads for for catalog campaigns. "We simply can't reproduction of recordings as a felony and current product have predominated to the Price Fixing Probe get enough flexibility (with our ad dollars)," the sale of such duplications as a mis- extent that only a handful of major full -line Worrell asserted. demeanor. Penalties for selling recordings retailers have been observed promoting Begins In Earnest Boosting Catalog Volume without the name of the manufacturers or catalog product. This is particularly the LOS ANGELES - Subpoenas have The most prevalent techniques for the artist are also classified as a mis- case with "deep catalog" that is over a year been issued to record retailers, dis- boosting catalog volume are all -label and demeanor under the new laws. old. tributors and producers to testify in a multi -label promotions, and an individual The Florida statute, which went into ef- Most retail and record company ex- federal grand jury investigation concer- artists' catalogs on sale. However, ac- fect July 1, and the New Hampshire law, ecutives consider catalog the "cream" of ning alleged price fixing in the recording cording to Solomon, the spread in list which will take effect on August 30, both the business. It is usually higher priced than industry. The probe is slated for this fall prices between new and catalog merchan- provide for the seizure and destruction of current merchandise, and therefore more in Los Angeles, and will be headed by dise make the latter kind of promotion dif- bootleg recordings and the equipment profitable for retailers. For a record com- Brian Robbins, anattorney he Justice ficult. used for their manufacture. pany, the expenses of promotion and Department's antitrust division. Many of Tower's customers find it Another new law affecting bootleggers, merchandising are substantially reduced. "weird" that the latest album by an artist the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Therefore, the paucity of print ads for it sug- disers. "Most of your very big retailers to- may sell for $4.99, because it is $7.98 list Organizations Statute, was employed in the gest that a lucrative sector of the industry is day are aware of that, including Sam price, while the rest of the artist's catalog indictment of Fernardo J. Montilla by a being neglected. Goody, Korvettes and Peaches. But over- sells for $1 less ($6.98 list). And in the case federal grand jury in Puerto Rico. Montilla, A number of retailers queried by Cash all, we as an industry could do much more of certain artists like Barbra Streisand, the owner of Montilla Records in San Juan, Box placed the lion's share of the blame on in the way of tying together hit product with whose albums list for $8.98, $7.98 and was also indicted on counts of copyright the manufacturers, who, they claim, are not artists' catalogs." $6.98, the difference in sale price creates violations, mail fraud and interstate interested in moving anything but hot Linda Stellinger, head record buyer for even greater confusion, Solomon transportation of sound recordings with albums, which sell an estimated five times the Coop in Boston, said her recent efforts counterfeit labels. as many units as catalog. to get record company support for a major Warner Music/Belwin In a related matter, William Chaison, ow- The manufacturers, for their part, whole- catalog ad were fruitless, and "we wound Mills Publishing Deal ner of the Free Market Tape Store in Dover, heartedly deny this assertion. The one up running the same basic new releases ad. New Jersey, was indicted by a local grand general consensus seems to be that over "We buy such -and -such an amount of Suspend Negotiations jury for allegedly violating that state's Anti - the past two years, there has been an in- hits, and we get money based on those LOS ANGELES - Negotiations bet- Piracy Statute. creasing awareness throughout the in- purchases which is earmarked only for ween Warner Bros. Music and Belwin- dustry of the importance of actively those items," she explained. "And we put Mills Publishing Corp. have been promoting catalog. Retailers and record maybe 10 or 11 new releases on sale (each suspended indefinitely. Although no The `Cult' Gets Gold company officials indicate that, over the week). That's the way it works. Whose fault specific plans were announced, the NEW YORK - The fourth Columbia album coming months, catalog promotions will be is it? The branches, the individual sales- cooperation which has existed between by Blue Oyster Cult, "On Your Feet Or On much more visible, in radio, print, TV and men, the (manufacturer) corporation, or the companies will continue. Your Knees," has been certified gold by the "news media." us? I don't know." suggested. RIAA. "There is no question about it; merchan- Terry Worrell, president of Bromo Dis - Fred DeCoopman, director of advertis- ing for Harmony House's six Detroit stores, said the problem in obtaining co-op money for catalog ads stemmed from a lack of communication with corporate headquar- ters, rather than with the local branch sales personnel. Salesmen, he said, are only do- ing what they are directed to do, which is to meet quotas on new releases. Harmony House, which puts at least one entire label on sale each week, recently at- tempted to interest some larger companies in supporting a five -month "Anthology of Rock" radio campaign, but had limited success, DeCoopman asserted. "It's a mat- ter of priorities on their end. They want hits. They don't care as much about moving 10,- 000 of this or that catalog album as they do about selling two million of a big hit." Up To Record Companies Don Dempsey, vice president of marketing for Columbia Records, insisted that it was up to the record companies to (continued on page 51) Record Merch. To Open In Denver LOS ANGELES - Record Merchandising has announced plans to open an indepen- dent distribution operation in the Denver market, effective July 25. The branch will open with London and Motown as their in- itial lines. According to a spokesman for Record Merch., the branch will service the Denver and Salt Lake City markets. Sales manager for the operation will be Jim Stone, while Kim Laughter will handle promotion. Atlantic Ups List Price On Foreigner, Slave NEW YORK - Debut albums by Foreigner on Atlantic Records and by Slave on MONTREUX MUSIC - Various Atlantic Records artists, collec- solav Yakubovic; Herbie Mann; Bryan Ray; Etta James; Newman; Cotillion Records (distributed worldwide by tively called the "Atlantic Super Stars," dominated the musical Lou Solo N; Doldinger; Mann; and Rick Wakeman. Pictured bottom Atlantic) have been assigned a list price of proceedings at the 11th Montreux International Festival in Swit- row from left during a set performed by the Avverage White Band $7.98 for LPs, 8 -tracks and cassettes. zerland. Pictured performing on stage at Montreux are, from left, and Ben E. King are: Onnie McIntyre; Luther Vandross; Sammy Previously, the disc configurations of both top row: Arif Mardin, producer, conductor, and arranger for the Figuera; Hamish Stuart; Etta James; and Ben E. King, Stuart; Van - recordings listed for $6.98. Atlantic Super Stars; David "Fathead" Newman; Sonny Fortune; dross; King and Alan Gorrie. The concerts were recorded for future Both albums have recently been certified Klaus Doldinger; Molly Duncan, from the Average White Band; Yar- album release. gold by the RIAA. 10 Cash Box/July 30, 1977 www.americanradiohistory.com.