What Is Happening With MoFi?

That’s it? No other reasons except people don’t have “adventurous” taste?

 

What a shame if they do stop releasing new stuff.

 

Yeah all they want to listen to is Brothers in Arms and The Stranger

 

They need to release material that people want to buy, pretty simple. There are more than enough copies of great sounding Brothers In Arms in the used bins, I'm never gonna pay $50 for a MOFI of this.....$60 for a Rickie Lee Jones album...Really???!!
They need to do a demographic study, as I would pay $40-$60 for MOFI vinyl issues of Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Genesis, EW&F..........

 

Was there at one stage talk about a Blood On The Tracks release in their one step series?. I'd like to see that happen. I think their Dylan releases, Stereo and Mono, were excellent.

 

Was anyone else at RMAF and hear the Test Pressing of What's Going On??

 

importedcds.com has it listed as a October 26, 2018 release....

Simon & Garfunkel Parsley Sage Rosemary & Thyme on ImportCDs

 

Okay sorry to have made such a pointless comment that everyone is aware of. Excuse me while I go and kill myself...

 

Much of the above is to do with exchange rates and shipping costs, neither of which are under Mofi's control. Also, import taxes and VAT are hardly Mofi's fault either.

 

Forget everything I said then. Damn shipping costs and exchange rate

 

They could manufacture within the EU for EU sales. That's what they'd do if they were serious about the marketplace.

 

True but I guess with limited production numbers it might cost them.

 

Requires mofi to open an office in the EU and also to have releases licensed for release in the EU. The latter might not be possible or it may be a drag on the whole process. Some third party sellers may have exited the business. They were generally a lot cheaper than Amazon. Ordering direct from the US runs the risks of import taxes and fees (although if you are ordering several items, it may be the best option).

 

There used to be an eBay seller called jonifan who was the cheapest for mofi releases to UK.

 

Until recently, Import CDs used to be the best place to buy MFSL products if you're in the UK. Recently, they increased their prices so SACDs now generally cost $37.98 whereas before they were $25.98. They also started adding a 20% sales tax!

I wish there were more European audiophile companies, not just because of the cost of importing but maybe we would get more interesting titles as well. The whole audiophile business is too focused on the US market.

 

I don't doubt that you're right. Yet people around here must have a pretty good idea of how willing I am to spend money on music yet I don't own a single MFSL release other than the Dead Can Dance boxed set that was issued on 4AD. So it's not so much that I'm offering business advice to Mo-Fi as that I'm saying “this is why I won't be surprised if they go under”.

 

Try wowhd.co.uk. Free delivery to UK and actually worldwide. Ships from UK - no taxes for EU members.

 

Whilst I am in general agreement and can empathise with your sentiments here I think it's important to note that MFSL does not make physical product for license outside the US. It does not manufacture anything outside the US either. The US is it's sole market, not the rest of the world.

If those of us living outside the US, and particularly those of us in Europe with its punitive customs regulations, want US product, we have to pay hefty import duties and scandalous handling fees on top. When you add the costly shipping prices on top of all this MFSL product is without doubt prohibitively expensive for us.

Now, if the UK can strike a decent trade deal with the US once that we have extricate ourselves from the shackles of EU law, it might conceivably be a lot cheaper to buy MFSL product in the UK at least.

The point of my post is to underline the fact that stupidly expensive US records are not solely the domain of the retailers. If you look at the cost of MFSL product in the US it's actually not that expensive.

So don't lay the blame solely at MFSL feet. It's the punitive charges and greed of all the middle men who get the product to you who are more to blame.

 

Import CDs and WowHD are essentially the same thing, both being part of DirectToU, LLC (just look at the bottom of their websites). Having said that, WowHD don't seem to have had the recent price increases although they do add on the 20% VAT which they didn't used to do a few months ago.

 

Here in Canada, acquiring top quality releases from companies like Mofi or AP isn't that easy. There are some titles on Amazon, but they usually start at $50 and go from there, plus tax and shipping. I check the U.S sites and the selection is much better, as is the price. U.S buyers have it really good. Most selections on Amazon are long sold out or selling for ridiculous prices in Canada. I don't know of any other online sources in Canada for these releases now that Northern Volume has closed down. Retail stores in my area don't carry them. I have managed to acquire a decent number of these "audiophile" titles, mostly jazz since I got back into vinyl, and am grateful for their existence, as I now have a nice collection of jazz titles I would not have been able to find good copies of otherwise. They aren't cheap and you have to pick your spots and do your research, but in the case of the Miles Davis Mofi reissues, I knew it was a case of buy nice and buy once. After I get a title from Mofi, AP, Speaker's Corner etc. I feel I don't need to search for a top copy anymore, so the extra price kind of pays for itself right there. That being said, these are many titles that are not available to me right now that I would buy without hesitation. I find it hard to believe I can't get a good copy of Blue Train or A Love Supreme in Canada at a reasonable price.

 

Good points. I would class myself (ears and budget) as low audiophile. I did pick up the Bridge Over Troubled Water one step vinyl but £100+ for a single album albeit on 2 discs is a bit steep for me. I kept up to speed with all the Dylan stuff but basically all their (MFSL) titles exist in good quality/sound in my opinion on Sony at a fraction of the cost. Mono of the first 8 - Sony have done them and my Dylan mates and me think they did them very well. Great to have the MFSL mono sacds though and sacds for New Morning and Before the Flood.

 

Yep. This mystified me. Why did MOFI turn to releasing mono discs of the 60's Dylan albums, when Sony had already done such a bloody good job with their mono box ? Surely sales were affected by this - I love the Sony box and so didn't bother with the MOFI's.

 

Thanks for the clarification!

 

I’ve been waiting for what seems like forever now for their SACD of Dylan’s Oh Mercy. I hope they’re doing okay, and that they do release Oh Mercy eventually.

 

Same here. I’ve bought almost all of the Dylan SACDs they’ve released, except for the mono editions. The Sony box is great. The only mono from MoFi I’ve purchased is JWH because the Sony mono disc was harsh.