De Agostini - 'The Beatles Vinyl Collection' mail order set via subscription

Most... let's face it. But's it's ok to dream, some of the time and who knows who else might be looking in - part of the fun of this thread I guess.





The Blues Collection that Orbis did in the 90s was 'spotty' - a lot of live recordings that were decent but little more, mixed in with a lot of Public Domain stuff, along with some great things like the Howlin' Wolf London Sessions (featuring Clapton, members of the Stones etc) and the disc filled out with great single tracks. Like many in the collection. They did a Musicals collection and a Jazz one too, soon after. I think the Classical Collection they did was the first in the all those series and I subscribed and got almost the lot but they were sadly stolen from me. But that was all on CD and tape. So for vinyl, it would have to be something very different - to that blues one. How many of these people are household names? There's Eric Clapton and... Maybe he's not so much, today either.

So yes, the only one that has a realistic chance I think is something fairly 'broad' (talking in pop & rock) and then people would I'm sure be happy to buy - say - The Human League's Dare one week and Iron Maiden's The Number Of The Beast, the following one.

 

The Jazz collection was hardly commercial...

 

Which is why I said it has totally disappeared from all outlets near me for months now.

I’d say it enjoyed more subscriptions than other series. It would be that kind of niche market.

 

That's true. I was the only person buying them in my local shop aside from a couple of subscribers! They got three issues of each one. Two went to the subscribers, the third I bought, when I didn't buy it didn't sell. They've now stopped getting them in totally so I'm having to mail order individual issues from DeAgostini, which has been crap!

 

This is fascinating. Thanks for posting these three options so far. How many more are there?

The Lennon collection would get my vote! That would be so cool to collect every fortnight/ month.

Any whispers of a Rolling Stones collection similar to the Beatles collection? That would be my dream.

 

It is commonly accepted over here that the master used on the UK single of Old Brown Shoe is uncompressed whereas the US single features the same mix albeit with compression. I've never heard the UK single for myself but I've done an OBS shoot-out between a UK Hey Jude export pressing, a Japanese Hey Jude (AP pressing), a German Hey Jude (1C062), a French The Beatles Again (2C062), a UK 1967-70 (-1) and a Japanese 1967-70 (EAP pressing). To me the German was the best, hands down. I should try with the lastest 1967-70 analogue pressing from 2014 but I fear it's going to be compressed also.

 

Just a few more to go - here is #4:



This one sounds especially interesting as it claims to be a "complete" collection, in which case it should include the "Let It Be" movie and the complete Beatles cartoon series...

 

Oh wow! Now this would be amazing. I've never seen the cartoon before and I could do with some of the movies on DVD along with the Anthology series. This would be fantastic! Take my money now!!

 

Nice thought though....

 

It would be nice to finally get an official release for the entire Beatles film recordings during my lifetime. If anything, I think it's more likely for things like "Let It Be", Shea Stadium and the animated TV series to get a limited edition (e.g. DeAgostini) release than a full-blown heavily advertised mainstream package.

You would think after all these years they would find some way to make them officially available to fans, instead of us having to buy/download bootlegged/pirate versions...

 

Seems to be predominantly Beatles related they are wishing to get opinions on?. DVD for me is an old technology now - surely blu Ray would be the way to go especially for the HD Movies and recent HD releases like the Eight Days A Week programme?.

 

I personally agree that dvd is old tech, but unfortunately most people don’t...

Number of discs sold in the UK, by format and year

DVD
1998 0.2m
1999 4.0m
2000 16.6m
2001 41.3m
2002 89.9m
2003 145.0m
2004 196.5m
2005 211.2m
2006 227.0m
2007 248.1m
2008 252.9m
2009 234.6m
2010 210.1m
2011 191.8m
2012 162.0m
2013 143.4m
2014 124.9m

Blu-ray
2007 0.8m
2008 3.7m
2009 8.4m
2010 13.0m
2011 15.3m
2012 16.7m
2013 18.8m
2014 17.3m

From what I gather the last few years sales have been even more damning for Bly Ray

 

ALL of the US singles are going to be inferior in different ways to the U.K. as they all originated from dub tapes, and many had different levels of EQ, compression, and reverb, so why stop at Old Brown Shoe? I never heard about a specific issue regarding compression on this title, but it does not surprise me.

 

Interesting those statistics about blu Ray vs dvd, what i note from them is that dvd sales have dramatically decreased since 2008 and continue to do so and blu Ray has only decreased 2013 after a steady increase. If Blu-ray replaced dvd the numbers would significantly increase immediately it’s like the old Betamax vs VHS video tape, Betamax did sell very well but when it was phased out everyone bought VHS as that’s all there was at that time. Interesting though!.
I would probably pass on a dvd set but would definitely buy a blu ray set due to the higher potential resolution. It is strange that blu ray has decreased?, as you would think people would appreciate HD rather than SD?, People buy the PlayStation Pro In massive quantities due to it being 4K compatible I wonder why it isn’t the same with blu ray discs?.

 

Yes, but you said "any chance we could get....?" What I'm asking is what made you say that?

Why do you think we’re maybe getting such an uncompressed version from....anywhere?

 

What is missing from that list is a entry for downloaded movies and streamed, as a lot of people now prefer to not have physical copies (I prefer physical personally).

 

I never bothered buying into BluRay as the discs were overpriced and the loading time to access the disc content was too long. Now that the prices have come down and load times have improved I still can't see the point in upgrading as I now prefer to stream my HD and 4K content. There is now so much choice in what to watch that owning physical media just doesn't appeal to me anymore...

Continuing DeAgostini's suggestions for future Beatle related collections, here's #5:

 

Nope - I don't think I have the Irish one!

 

I’m not after anything, thanks, it’s @Stan94

 

There’s a big record fair in Paris in 2 week’s time, I’ll probably get a chance to buy a reasonably-priced used UK copy there.

 

Here is DeAgostini suggestion #6 (already suggested by a couple of members here!)



Ten LPs from each member - hmmm... John only had 8 studio albums so they'd have to include live/compilation releases, George's 12 include two experimental synth music - although I wonder if ATMP would count as 3? That leave's Ringo with 19 to choose from and prolific Paul with 24 studio and 9 live to pick from...

 

So far I'd pick the 7" collection without hesitation. The solo album collection would probably be the easiest for the company to whip up and I'd certainly buy some of them but the 7" set would be a treat.

 

Larger WHSmiths are still doing them in London. I hate that shop, but needs must

 

anyone had the notebook and power pack yet?