What Is Happening With MoFi?

Remember after success, it sometimes sends a company into a new planning mode with what to do with the new found revenue. I think their phono electronics have done way better than I would have thought.
And 19,000 One steps have sold at $100 a pop in the last 24 months. That's $2MM on just those 4 titles. It wouldn't surprise me if they had another $1MM in preorders for the upcoming titles. They haven't collected, but its just hanging there to be used as forecasted revenue.

 

Yes, these stats are a little alarming. That is more than a 50% reduction in MFSL releases. I still think it is licensing and the ability to acquire master tapes. These days most labels think a digital file is just as good.

 

I also think with titles caught up in approvals, they might be releasing lots at once. If there Dire Straits go through, then we are looking at 8 titles in probably just a couple months.

I eagerly await their 2019 catalog which should be out soon. It usually has a whole new list of titles no one knew were coming.

 

I think they are spending too much time re-releasing Bob Dylan in two formats (LP and SACD) and in two mixes (mono and stereo). When they could be re-releasing classic Faust, Pere Ubu, Gong, Can, Terry Riley, Boredoms, Swell Maps, This Heat, The Velvet Underground, The Residents, Naked City etc etc.

 

But with a more than doubling in retail price, with the addition of the electronics line. And they're selling out of those 7500 $100-125 copies. They're not sitting on them the way they might with the $50 pressings. For example, the Aretha Franklin Gold is in a pressing run of 4000. Released earlier this year, they're still around to be bought. With the OneSteps, they greatly promote the "limited edition" aspect of the release. And at now $125, they're having no problem selling them out.

 

They would go broke reissuing your cd collection.

 

CD??? Who said CD? I want vinyls. 33 1/3 rpm vinyls. Only the best.

 

Interesting points. There is definitely a collector aspect to the OneSteps. However the OneSteps do deliver sonically over most other releases. So having a definitive copy of one's favorite title is worth something.

 

Ok, your vinyl collection.

 

That’s an assumption on your part and a snotty reply at best.

 

If you heard those titles you might. By far the best versions done so far. I actually think licencing on some titles came to an end which coincided with difficulty in licencing new titles. There appears little reason for the never ending delay to Dire Straits titles and Breakfast In America. They appear to be prioritising the one step titles at the present, obviously because they are more profitable. They had some great tiles last year including A Salty Dog and Rumour and Sigh. More promised releases from 2016/17 are still TBD so there are obviously either problems with licencing or pressing capacity. Don't believe they are going out of business with their accessories and hardware products. Maybe these have diverted attention, eating up investment and being seen as a more viable business model long term.

 

Because the 60$ version blows an original out of the water. It's a staple audiophile favourite and guaranteed to sell well.

 

A lot of members here who are not newbies and should know better are salivating over limited coloured vinyl releases.

 

Too bad the Silver Label series was quietly abandoned.

 

I just received the Fall 2018 catalog from Music Direct. I went directly to the music pages. Not a single newly announced SACD title is showing for MFSL. Not only that but the previously announced SACD from Dire Straits and Marvin Gaye's What's Going On are not shown.

The only thing I see new are the UltraDisc One-Step for Marvin Gaye What's Going On and Stevie Ray Vaughn Texas Flood.

On the back page of the catalog it shows a Simon & Garfunkel, Miles Davis Miles Smiles, Bob Dylan Oh Mercy and Curtis Mayfield Superfly with no indication if these are vinyl or SACD

Maybe the end is here.

 

So they say. European Audiophile are Speakers Corner and Pure Pleasure records. Both pressed at Pallas as are the Warner /Rhino titles that are cut from analogue sources (Neil Young).

 

I would love MOFI titles by those artists as well, but as was pointed out by Tullman, they would lose their shirt trying to sell these. I guess at least two copies of many of these artists would sell (you and me), but I don't believe enough to sustain 3,000+ copies.

 

Yep, they have the SRV OneStep listed online, as well. First I've seen this.

 

I'd be interested in the Billy Joel. I already have the Classics Bridge Over Troubled Water. No reason for me to buy it again, even if it might be a marginally quieter pressing, or whatever. Not going to be rebuying Dylan SACDs when I already have the original Sony run. And I think this is a problem. While there are lots of younger people entering the record hobby, I don't think there are as many jumping into the audiophile realm. And a lot of us middle aged and older guys aren't going to buy something that we got the "definitive" version of ten, twenty or thirty years ago.

 

MoFi did do gold discs of VU and Nico and White Light/White Heat back in the day. A reissue of Loaded might sell for them, since it's their most accessible album. But for the others mr.datsun listed? Yeah, no.

 

Why ? Their Street Survivors (Lynyrd Skynyrd) sounded no better, or even different, from a clean original MCA copy.

 

My assumption was that it wouldn't be news to anyone on the Internet that opinions aren't universally shared. It appears that is a new concept for you which you strangely felt needed to be posted when I merely stated my opinion.

Anyway... back on topic.

 

Ask them if their PO Box has been renewed.

 

This isn't just about me and my collection. It's about broadening horizons.

People are talking about them closing down. So maybe the same old stuff isn't selling any more.

 

You're just going by one release. Hardly sufficient enough to judge the whole catalog.

Willie Nelson - Stardust
KC & The Sunshine Band (S/T)
Stevie Wonder - Hotter Than July, Talking Book
Raspberries - Raspberries Best
etc.

All good stuff and I even LIKED the Skynyrd Street Survivors too. So there.