Hey Kids, Have You Heard The News? MOSAIC's IN TROUBLE!!!

[AllenLowe]

just talking about Mosaic - I get lots of other promo emails - but never Mosaic.

[Niko]

Well, they send the Mosaic Daily Gazette via email every sunday. That they send it on sundays is, of course, clever, because that's when people actually have time to order... Otherwise... well, it is a collection of interesting jazz links of the previous few weeks - Scott Wenzel (?) handpicks worthy blogposts on jazzwax, dothemath etc, adds a youtube link or two, and might even throw in a few Francis Wolff photographs so that it's not simply a collection of links...

I'm not saying they should stop sending those emails... but... I always found them kinda sad and desperate... I can select what to read on these websites myself ... in a way these newsletters are a sad reminder that Mosaic booklets are not as essential as they used to be as I can always find plenty of information online ... and no, it's not the same quality... but then: I can listen to hours of, say, Gene Ammons on spotify, read old issues of Jet and Billboard, augment with some more recent reviews... for me, that comes close enough to a Mosaic experience without anybody producing a boxset... Good for them that so many here think differently from me.

(Let's also not forget that they (must have) misunderstood the market a few times in recent years, True Blue and that Smooth Jazz Series come to mind)

Edited May 7, 2017 by Niko

[AllenLowe]

huh; no I have never gotten a word from them.

[mjzee]

I love their Sunday gazette.  

5 hours ago, David Ayers said:

I'm wondering how they reach customers? I don't even get the emails, though I still have a customer account. In any case I don't want spam from them or anybody else. Physical product, physical catalogue? Have to reach customers somehow. Is it enough to just sit there with a website? I can see that worked with some loyal customers but can that really be enough?

I'd bet they mostly depend on free media: newspaper reviews, website mentions and the like.  The Wall St Journal, for example, usually gives a full-column review to each of their releases, and that must result in some sales.  Frank Zappa said that he gave so many interviews because he didn't have money for promotion, and this worked as a substitute.

1 hour ago, AllenLowe said:

interesting about the catalog and emails; I am a very irregular purchaser of Mosaics, but I do buy stuff from them; yet I've never gotten a group email or any kind of appeal or informational message from them (though I should mention that Scott Wenzel is a great guy and very responsive on a personal level). Even my crappy business model says that if you buy anything from me, or even just send me a query, you get on my mailing list, which costs me nothing to do (and of course if you request, I will remove you - maybe)........

FYI, Allen, I bought a disc from you I think last year (the Matthew Shipp CD), and have never received an email from you since.  You don't call, you don't write...

[AllenLowe]

really? Consider yourself lucky; but seriously, clearly an oversight. not to digress, but we are on a new promo program. Please message me your email.

[ElginThompson]

2 hours ago, Ed Swinnich said:

I used to look forward to receiving the catalog, even though I'm very much an online customer.  I think that an annual catalog is a good way to keep buyers interested, or perhaps a post card mailing with the latest set highlighted as well as some recent sets and the Running Low sets.  I once wrote Michael Cuscuna and said his catalogs make for the best bathroom reading material there is.  Throw that catalog in the bathroom and let it work its magic. 

 

 

 

Unless they specifically tracked the return on investment for the physical catelogue, it is difficult to assess how effective it was as a marketing tool. When trying to make ends meet, marketing is usually the first to go in a small business. I understand why they likely eliminated the catalogue. That said, I looked forward to receiving it and to a lesser extent enjoy the Sunday email newsletter. Mail in the physical or electronic form is generally annoying, but anything from Mosaic puts me in a happy place. 

Edited May 7, 2017 by ElginThompson

[hbbfam]

I seem to recall that I have received Mosaic's physical catalog every year in December, this previous year included.  And I do enjoy the weekly Gazette email.  Very nice post in today's acknowledging the increase in sales in last few days.  Hats off to J.A.W. for getting this ball rolling.

[David Ayers]

I had no idea there was a weekly gazette. That's the kind of spam I can very much do without...

[mjzee]

1 hour ago, David Ayers said:

I had no idea there was a weekly gazette. That's the kind of spam I can very much do without...

It basically lists the newest links on the Mosaic homepage - usually performance videos and articles by people like Mike Myers.  I look forward to getting them.

[David Ayers]

Well I also didn't know Mike Myers wrote for them. Can't he bankroll them? Or is it another Mike Myers?

[Niko]

1 hour ago, David Ayers said:

Well I also didn't know Mike Myers wrote for them. Can't he bankroll them? Or is it another Mike Myers?

no, it works as follows... Some master jazz connoiseur at Mosaic assembles a list like this

http://www.jazzwax.com/2017/05/kenny-dorham-kd-is-here.html

https://ethaniverson.com/2017/05/03/when-you-find-me-will-you-blind-me-with-your-glow/

http://jazzprofiles.blogspot.nl/2017/05/ted-gioia-on-charles-mingus-history-of.html

 

plus three links further links (took me 90 seconds, maybe they invest 10 minutes...) and then looks up whether Francis Wolff took photographs of anybody involved (certainly KD, maybe Charles McPherson or Mingus, too) and adds those to the links... and then someone writes up stuff like "Charles McPherson discussing Bird vs Coltrane vs Dizzy in the second in the second link is really interesting - and don't forget to watch the video" or "Yoshiaki Masuo in that video illustrates that all over the world people were playing the same music Gabor Szabo played in the US"...

and because they're professional writers who actually spend like 30 minutes on it, they do a bit better than me and they call it a Gazette... for me, that additional layer of editing is completely useless but ymmv... the only twist is that they don't post the links directly in the email but rather post them on their webpage so you go from the email to the webpage and then possibly on to jazzwax or dothemath or whereever... in this sense, Marc Myers is working for them just like he's working for us

btw: "Charles McPherson discussing Bird vs Coltrane vs Dizzy in the second in the second link is really interesting - and don't forget to watch the video"

this is actually highly recommended, that video of Charles McPherson and Ethan Iverson playing Lover is not to be missed

Edited May 7, 2017 by Niko

[David Ayers]

Thanks Niko. Sounds weak. And not Mike Myers the actor but Marc Myers, a blogger. Blimey.

[Niko]

the trouble with foreign names...

[paul secor]

I sometimes find interesting things in the Mosaic Gazette, sometimes not. If not, I just delete it. not a problem for me.

[Niko]

of course, it's not a problem - it's just an email. My point is that you can't credibly say "our product is really special" by delivering a freebie that any potentially interested party could assemble in higher quality in 90 minutes. Without looking desperate, that is. [in that respect the Gazette is not comparable to the old catalogue]

Edited May 7, 2017 by Niko

[WarpedOrb]

I thought the Mosaic emails were simply a nice way to create a sense of community for Mosaic-/jazz-fans and it has pointed me to news I wouldn't have been aware of otherwise on many occasions. It's a tad unfair to call it lame and a tad+ unfair to call it "spam". I mean you do have to ask for it.  

I ordered the Louis All-Stars from Jazzmessengers. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to write a comment. I trust it'll come safe and sound. 

Now that it's off Mosaic's site I can't work it out - how does it compare to it's CD counterpart in terms of content? The CD box must have a good deal more music worth owning.

I also ordered the Getz vinyl box directly from Mosaic even though I wasn't planning on getting that one soon, if ever. I simply 'like' Getz, but I feel the vinyl Mosaics are a little more special and worth getting when I still can. Having said that I recently spent 4K on a new CD-player so I love those too.

Now if Prime Minister Trudeau gives me my tax refund I'll also get that Beehive, Woody Shaw, Roland Kirk vinyl, and who knows...thank god I started getting paid better a couple years ago and already picked up the "modern" stuff like Jordan, Threadgill, Braxton, and Mingus along with several others incl. Selects. I would never have been able to buy it all now with this trouble Mosaic is having so I feel I dodged a bullet. 

The sample audio for the Beehive really sounds great to my ears as does the Shaw. Scott was nice enough to put Shaw aside for me. A couple years ago I had my MJQ box stolen; with the book and two, still unopened CDs inside. They sent me replacements for $30. I love those guys and will miss them if they go.

Rambling follows:

For what it's worth I'm one of those "digital kids". I owe my knowledge/love of music to downloading thousands of albums and exploring music to find my way without having to waste tens of thousands of dollars on avenues not to my tastes. Having said that I love physical media - I like my collection around me. It's comforting and satisfying. I feel no where near the love or attachment to digital media on my sex-box computer and I don't think it's true ownership in my opinion as it feels somewhat ephemeral. I will dearly miss Mosaic when they go. To each their own. Younger folks are buying vinyl in droves and now cassettes (??!) and I've even seen new, ridiculously overpriced reel-to-reel so I don't understand this talk about the death of physical media. It's more like a cycle.

Rough collection breakdown (50% jazz primarily post-war): 2000 CDs/700 vinyl/700 digital. A bit on the small side, but a healthy balanced diet.

Sorry if somewhat off-topic.

[Clunky]

I like the Gazette. I think I look at around a third of the entries. Their effort isn't lost on me as they pull together some interesting features that I would otherwise never see. The recent Horace Silver video from Italy being good evidence for the defense. 

 

[David Ayers]

The perfect marketing strategy. 

 

 

Give me strength. 

[xybert]

I quite like the gazette, it is what it is. Only minor quibble is that the links in the email just take you to the Mosaic site rather than to the specific article (first world problems etc), but i wouldn't lay a formal complaint about it or anything. 

[JSngry]

I like the gazette as well. It's not like I go looking for these articles. Not that they all are something I click on, but hell, it's Sunday, and I'm usually done with the whole thing in 15 minutes or less. Never a bother, and often enough enjoyable enough.

[Ken Dryden]

I like the Gazette as well, though that top ten list that was linked in a recent issue had a few ridiculous choices.

Mosaic will have to continue to focus on what they can do well while also selling a decent amount of copies. It always seemed to me that whenever they did a Capitol box, it inevitably went on sale at a lower price at some point, though I think the Nat King Cole was an exception.

I wish someone could get into the Monterey Jazz Festival collection at Stanford University and do a decent job finding releasable music which could sell. It seemed like Concord's effort was half-hearted and the titles quickly ended up deleted.

 

 

Edited May 8, 2017 by Ken Dryden

[Clunky]

7 hours ago, Ken Dryden said:

I like the Gazette as well, though that top ten list that was linked in a recent issue was had a few ridiculous choices.

 

 

I thought that the naive top ten list was quite interesting even funny. Mosaic's inclusion in their gazette was to highlight that jazz is still pulling in an audience.

I don't know anything about the writer but he/she comes across as young and just discovering the joys of jazz , has encountered some classics and Gregory Porter and wants to tell the world that they've discovered something worth blogging about.

The top ten could easily have been ridiculed but that would have risked deterring newbies expressing their opinions. I want jazz to live and so I'm delighted that someone feels sufficiently engaged to blog their opinions however I'll informed they might be.

[Scott Dolan]

A line from my shipping confirmation email: "We had a very strong response to our offerings over the last few days and want to thank you for your support!"

[Fred]

I received this email from Jazzmessengers, regarding my order of the Condon box:

Thanks for your message and of course for this new order.

 

Everything is alright! We will send your box set today.

 

You are seeing this because you bought the last box set we had on stock.

 

 

[Fred]

On 5/5/2017 at 10:19 PM, mjzee said:

And a lover of the Fleisher Popeyes too!

:-D of course! Real art.

As all the american comic srips in my library (and not only, of course). And the Busby Berkeley musicals, and a lot of things...