Harmonia muddle

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-4416340907707214572008-02-07T08:55:00.000Z2008-02-07T12:32:34.248Z2008-02-07T12:32:34.248ZHarmonia muddle<a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_FPpiWNARTt4/R6iKUKN21rI/AAAAAAAADlE/-h4Dm1z9XvY/s1600-h/HM1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163529051724764850" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_FPpiWNARTt4/R6iKUKN21rI/AAAAAAAADlE/-h4Dm1z9XvY/s400/HM1.jpg" border="0" /></a> BBC Radio 3's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/cdreview/">CD Review</a> programme has been on a jolly to Arles in the South of France. The event was French label Harmonia Mundi's 50th anniversary sales conference, and payback time came last Saturday when the BBC programme played the contents of the conference goody bag and gave several senior French executives a lot of valuable airtime to promote the Harmonia Mundi solution for today's turbulent classical music market. In simple terms the Harmonia Mundi solution is internet bad and independent sector good. Now I am a huge fan of both Harmonia Mundi recordings and independent record stores and <a href="http://www.overgrownpath.com/2005/09/cracking-kuhnau-from-skywalker-sound.html">feature both here</a> frequently. The header photo of the excellent Harmonia Mundi store in Avignon was taken by me last September and I have spent an awful lot of Euros in <a href="http://www.harmoniamundi.com/france/boutique.php">their French stores</a> over the years. So congratulations to Harmonia Mundi on fifty wonderful years, and it's great to find such solid support for independent bricks and mortar stores. But just a minute, look at this ... <a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_FPpiWNARTt4/R6ii7KN21tI/AAAAAAAADlU/2sFugwwJsa0/s1600-h/HM2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163556110018729682" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_FPpiWNARTt4/R6ii7KN21tI/AAAAAAAADlU/2sFugwwJsa0/s400/HM2.jpg" border="0" /></a> Open <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B000025R06/ref=dp_olp_2">this link</a>. You will see that Harmonia Mundi are trading on the internet as part of the Amazon Marketplace. You can buy Stockhausen's Kontakte on Wergo (a Harmonia Mundi distributed label) online direct from Harmonia Mundi for £10.73 delivered in the UK which is competitive with the price in leading independent record store (see comment from Harmonia Mundi below). And you don't even need to visit Amazon, just buy from Harmonia Mundi's <a href="http://uk.hmboutique.com/">own online store</a>. To find out what was really happening I ordered Kontakte direct from Harmonia Mundi. My copy arrived in 48 hours, which is faster than I could have got it from an independent store, and it even came with the business card of John Falla, Harmonia Mund's direct sales manager. Great service; but why are Harmonia Mundi cutting out the very independents they claim to support? Could it be that their private view on the future of the independent bricks and mortar sector differs from their public position? Harmonia Mundi make great CDs, and you cannot blame them for running with the hare and the hounds in today's turbulent music market. But they are going about it in a muddle-headed way. A top independent record store I spoke to before running this story didn't know about their Amazon Marketplace presence, and, not surprisingly, was very unhappy when I told them. And it's a pity that BBC Radio 3 swallowed Harmonia Mundi's bait hook, line and sinker without doing any research. But then the bouillabaisse in the South of France is very good indeed. Now here is a contemporary composer saying independent record labels <a href="http://www.overgrownpath.com/2006/10/independent-record-labels-never-failed.html">never failed me yet.</a> Header photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot ukPliablenoreply@blogger.com