New FTD: The Last Tours Vol.1 (4CD) & California Holiday 2LP

[dougkapp]

No one is obliged to do anything. But it doesn't cost FTD a bit of common sense. I've always been against the policy of releasing extremely expensive products that few people can purchase. That wasn't FTD's original mission. Look at the current prices of books or the prices of vinyls or CD sets. They are stratospheric.

[TCB-FAN]

$80 for four cds. Geez.

FTD has gotten too expensive.

£58 in the UK. And this is the problem. If it was, say, £40 this old curmudgeon might have actually gone for it. I currently have nothing from the tour, and I have sentimentality towards the old Fort Baxter release of some of this material. But not at £58. And the sad thing is we know that, unlike retail level releases, the price never drops.

Shipping costs have gone through the stratosphere in the last 5 years as well. This is why I'm all for official downloads (FLAC quality, if possible).

[frus75]

There’s also a big difference depending on dealers: Guitar man sessions is a 5 cd set and it’s 52€ on elviscorner while it costs 71€ (£59,99) on Elvis shop London or 60€ on my happiness French site.

[minkahed]

FTD wouldn't be around if us fans didn't buy their products in the first place, and you would think maybe they would keep the price down , but people its a business and no matter how we want to think Ernst and the gang are here for us Elvis fan's , Maybe at the beginning things were cause of their love for Elvis and I'm not saying they don't care still but with the money they have made , it's what they are here for to make money . FTD and Sony are not forcing you to buy their products so don't like the price don't buy it .

I was thinking the same thing.

Another reason FTD maybe are charging this (ridiculously) high price for this release is that they know we’ve been waiting for this kind of release (1977) for a very long time and probably figure, hey, if they want it, they’ll buy it.

[TCB-FAN]

FTD wouldn't be around if us fans didn't buy their products in the first place, and you would think maybe they would keep the price down , but people its a business and no matter how we want to think Ernst and the gang are here for us Elvis fan's , Maybe at the beginning things were cause of their love for Elvis and I'm not saying they don't care still but with the money they have made , it's what they are here for to make money . FTD and Sony are not forcing you to buy their products so don't like the price don't buy it .

I was thinking the same thing.

Another reason FTD maybe are charging this (ridiculously) high price for this release is that they know we’ve been waiting for this kind of release (1977) for a very long time and probably figure, hey, if they want it, they’ll buy it.

...And they will, regardless of cost ! They sure know their market.

[dougkapp]

I remember that when FTD started, CDs cost between 16-19 pounds. Editions ranged from 8,000 to 10,000 units and several CDs were reprinted. The costs were certainly lower. However, with the drop in sales, it's natural for prices to rise.
It's unlikely that FTD is selling 8,000 units of each soundboard.

[pmp]

I remember that when FTD started, CDs cost between 16-19 pounds. Editions ranged from 8,000 to 10,000 units and several CDs were reprinted. The costs were certainly lower. However, with the drop in sales, it's natural for prices to rise.
It's unlikely that FTD is selling 8,000 units of each soundboard.

They're not selling 8000 units of 120cd classical boxed sets either - and yet they can sell them for £150. Again, production costs are not the reason for the high price.

[minkahed]

FTD wouldn't be around if us fans didn't buy their products in the first place, and you would think maybe they would keep the price down , but people its a business and no matter how we want to think Ernst and the gang are here for us Elvis fan's , Maybe at the beginning things were cause of their love for Elvis and I'm not saying they don't care still but with the money they have made , it's what they are here for to make money . FTD and Sony are not forcing you to buy their products so don't like the price don't buy it .

I was thinking the same thing.

Another reason FTD maybe are charging this (ridiculously) high price for this release is that they know we’ve been waiting for this kind of release (1977) for a very long time and probably figure, hey, if they want it, they’ll buy it.

...And they will, regardless of cost ! They sure know their market.

I get that and more power to you for your enthusiasm, but, at this time, for me personally, I’m just not that interested/excited about this upcoming release as I used to be.

[dougkapp]

I remember that when FTD started, CDs cost between 16-19 pounds. Editions ranged from 8,000 to 10,000 units and several CDs were reprinted. The costs were certainly lower. However, with the drop in sales, it's natural for prices to rise.
It's unlikely that FTD is selling 8,000 units of each soundboard.

They're not selling 8000 units of 120cd classical boxed sets either - and yet they can sell them for £150. Again, production costs are not the reason for the high price.

It's hard to know the answer. But the costs don't just involve manufacturing the CD, but include freight, distribution and storage. Various factors can affect production. Another important point: the country where the CDs are produced. I'm sure there are cheaper countries than Denmark.

[pmp]

I remember that when FTD started, CDs cost between 16-19 pounds. Editions ranged from 8,000 to 10,000 units and several CDs were reprinted. The costs were certainly lower. However, with the drop in sales, it's natural for prices to rise.
It's unlikely that FTD is selling 8,000 units of each soundboard.

They're not selling 8000 units of 120cd classical boxed sets either - and yet they can sell them for £150. Again, production costs are not the reason for the high price.

It's hard to know the answer. But the costs don't just involve manufacturing the CD, but include freight, distribution and storage. Various factors can affect production. Another important point: the country where the CDs are produced. I'm sure there are cheaper countries than Denmark.

Are the CDs actually produced in Denmark? I very much doubt that is the case these days - and even if it was, it's still not going to account for the premium price. And the freight, distribution and storage costs the same for an Elvis CD as it does for a Sinatra CD or a Beatles CD or a Beethoven CD. And even if it did vary, it's not going to vary enough to make the sets £58 for 4 discs when Sony are also producing three disc sets for £6. That's bloody expensive storage and distribution!

[Keith Richards, Jr.]

I don’t worry about the price, I will pay anything for new soundboards. This looks like a damn fine release.

[chop983]

CD's cost pennies to produce

[Rob]

I don’t worry about the price, I will pay anything for new soundboards. This looks like a damn fine release.

You are the perfect customer.

[Keith Richards, Jr.]

I don’t worry about the price, I will pay anything for new soundboards. This looks like a damn fine release.

You are the perfect customer.

Thanks Rob, I appreciate it.

[javilu]

My advice...go and get it...although I am biased. I am s supporter and Promoter of the
label. At least I am honest..

So you have no idea why Orlando Feb 15th was not included?

The Orlando soundboard tape has technical problems with Elvis' voice buried under layers of sound. In its unaltered state, the recording is very reminiscent of an instrumental, in large parts anyway. Samples of what I'm talking about are out there on various bootlegs. The producers of the TFC box-set (to everyone's amazement) managed to fix much of this, but FTD apparently don't want to go down that route or simply re-use the bootlegger's efforts. A Savannah soundboard recording exists but has similar problems.

So the better idea is to sell to you a CD they've already sold to you -Unchained Melody- instead of giving you another concert but in lesser sound quality. Makes perfect sense.

At the very least I hope they include Amarillo in the next volume as the reviews were so bad I never got to buy that one lol.

[ale]

Hope the sound on the Charlotte show is better than on Unchained Melody FTD....is very weak and flat on the FTD

[JEFF d]

Amarillo actually isn't a bad show in not to bad sound on the FTD... I enjoyed it anyways

[YDKM]

Amarillo actually isn't a bad show in not to bad sound on the FTD... I enjoyed it anyways

Good luck with that as Listening to Elvis stumble through 'are you lonesome tonight' makes me ill. It almost wouldn't have been so bad if he could have read the words off a music stand

[Robert]

Hope the sound on the Charlotte show is better than on Unchained Melody FTD....is very weak and flat on the FTD

Binaural and 4 track recordings aside, the 1977 soundboard quality is really poor vs prior years.
The lack of recording relevance probably added to the basic approach with incomplete recordings and no effort to record on reel to reel.

Grateful Dead, to name one example, recorded their soundboards on multitrack and the audio quality on some of the releases is really impressive.

With the Madison '77 recording in mind, I'm convinced a future Indy '77 SB discovery may be a huge disappointment.
It's reason to cherish the ambient stereo audience recording even more.

But overall really pleased with this '77 FTD series and hopefully some unreleased soundboards will be included, in acceptable audio quality.

[Keith Richards, Jr.]

Grateful Dead’s soundboards from 1976-1978 especially are probably the greatest soundboards by any artist or group so it may be unfair to compare Elvis’ soundboards to them. Betty Cantor-Jackson mixed them to perfection while the band played. They are remastered and speed-corrected for release but they can’t be remixed and they don’t need it either.

[flamingstar81]

Hope the sound on the Charlotte show is better than on Unchained Melody FTD....is very weak and flat on the FTD

The 1977 songs, including from February 20th, sound better on the Return To The Queen City Of The South - He's Looking At You Kid (2021), from the Audionics label.

[Johnny2523]

Hope the sound on the Charlotte show is better than on Unchained Melody FTD....is very weak and flat on the FTD

The 1977 songs, including from February 20th, sound better on the Return To The Queen City Of The South - He's Looking At You Kid (2021), from the Audionics label.

Agreed that was a good set. If i recall the other shows sounded better on that one too.

[vinelvis]

Hope the sound on the Charlotte show is better than on Unchained Melody FTD....is very weak and flat on the FTD

Binaural and 4 track recordings aside, the 1977 soundboard quality is really poor vs prior years.
The lack of recording relevance probably added to the basic approach with incomplete recordings and no effort to record on reel to reel.

...

But I still think it's weird: Elvis performed some very mediocre shows during the summer of 1976 with all shows having the same setlist (with some exceptions). Yet multiple complete soundboards from all 1976 tours have surfaced. The December tour has at least 3 (almost) complete soundboards. The February 1977 tour, only 1.5 months later has 0.

Elvis soundboard recordings will never cease to amaze me. When you think there's a pattern, it only makes sense for one year or one tour. If the repetitivenes was really the cause for the incomplete 1977 soundboards, why are so many 1976 soundboards complete? Almost all of the June 1975 soundboards miss the opening songs. One could say they are not recorded because of repetitivenes, but why are they recorded again in December and again in 1976?

I always ask myself these kind of questions, but I think we'll never get a definitive answer.

[Johnny2523]

Hope the sound on the Charlotte show is better than on Unchained Melody FTD....is very weak and flat on the FTD

Binaural and 4 track recordings aside, the 1977 soundboard quality is really poor vs prior years.
The lack of recording relevance probably added to the basic approach with incomplete recordings and no effort to record on reel to reel.

...

But I still think it's weird: Elvis performed some very mediocre shows during the summer of 1976 with all shows having the same setlist (with some exceptions). Yet multiple complete soundboards from all 1976 tours have surfaced. The December tour has at least 3 (almost) complete soundboards. The February 1977 tour, only 1.5 months later has 0.

Elvis soundboard recordings will never cease to amaze me. When you think there's a pattern, it only makes sense for one year or one tour. If the repetitivenes was really the cause for the incomplete 1977 soundboards, why are so many 1976 soundboards complete? Almost all of the June 1975 soundboards miss the opening songs. One could say they are not recorded because of repetitivenes, but why are they recorded again in December and again in 1976?

I always ask myself these kind of questions, but I think we'll never get a definitive answer.

you have a fair point here, i know they weren't meant to be released but it seems rather inconsistent regardless. we can't say it's because it was a sort of insurance for a venue that Elvis performed the full hour he was hired for, because there's several that don't even make it to that point (especially those february 77 shows) due to their incompleteness.

[On Tape 1972]

As long as pmp is able to bitch about FTD, we're good. If everyone had been this 'price sensitive', the label would have closed its doors years ago.

@pmp I've bought several 4CD sets at a similar price range over the years, Cash and Hendrix to name a few. You forget to factor in the Elvis effect (a major icon of the 20th century) and the scarcity of the product. The amount of unreleased EP recordings is limited. The amount of current and future recordings of Beethoven's 5th or Schubert's piano sonata in b-flat major (fantastic as they may be)? Sheer endless.

Check out the Hendrix collector's label Dagger Records. Their product doesn't come cheap either.