Sending an e-mail to MCA/Universal regarding CD issues

[Mr Play]

You may receive a better response if you word your communication more like a business letter and less like a letter from a fan who's p*** off at a record company...

Examples...
..."if nearly every other album on the face of the planet" should more properly be put as "as many other CDs"

..."The reason for me sending this e-mail is to shed light on an issue that I find very important." - perhaps - "The reason I am writing this e-mail is to bring to your attention an issue of interest to a great many music collectors."

You've got to convince them that it's in their best interest FINANCIALLY to listen to you and heed your message...

Just my $.02 worth...

-=mw=-

I agree. The letter needs to be more succinct. If it's not noone is going to read past the first paragraph.

I also think you need a better email address. This probably feeds into an email pool that is seen only by employees on front lines. You need to find a contact with the company who can actually do something to help. Triple up with email, actual letter and phone call until you get a real response. Does anyone here have a contact there? If not, I'll ask our Marketing department to do some research.

[Smart woman]

Ok, the English teacher in me has just broken free ! Seriously, though, I agree with previous posters that your letter needs to be more articulate and succinct in order to be noticed. Many of the corrections I am suggesting are very minor, but when taken as a whole, I think they improve the "better grammer indicates higher intelligence" thing (which we know is not true anyway!). Please do not take offense at my corrections; I assume you posted it for that reason. Also, "proper English" usually extends contractions (don't = do not) and puts the commas inside quotation marks, such as "Come Monday," "One Particular Harbour," etc. I believe the song titles go in quotes and the album names get italicized if you can. I realize this is e-mail and not your Master's thesis, but every little bit helps when getting your letter noticed. Good luck!!!!!!!!


The reason for me sending this e-mail is to shed light on an issue that I find very important.

Change to Margarita Will's version

Back in the 80’s when...

Previously in the 1980's, when CD’s were...

The CD issues that were re-issues of albums originally pressed on vinyl to my understanding,

vinyl, to (insert comma)

no liner notes, no band credits, no lyrics, nothing.

no liner notes, no band credits, and no lyrics.

For most artist’s catalogues,

artists' (artists plural possessive)

Many popular songs are included on those albums, “Come Monday” , “Margaritaville” “One Particular Harbour” , and “Last Mango in Paris” , to name a few.

...albums, such as "Come Monday,"
delete 'to name a few'
put commas inside quoatation marks

the albums in which they were originally released on are only available on CD in MCA’s CDCP series.

delete "on"

Loads of neat pictures and paintings graced the album jackets, lyrics and liner notes were contained on the sleeves and so on.

Fascinating pictures and paintings graced the album jackets; lyrics and liner notes were contained on the sleeves.

I had to search hard online to find out who plays on Buffett’s 73-85 albums,

replace "hard" with "diligently"

The thing I find most disrespectful is the removal of Jimmy's dedications, for example, Volcano is/was dedicated to his wife and daughter.

...dedications. For example, the album Volcano was dedicated...

Yes, I understand that interest is low on this subject as most music fans come to the reasoning that all that matters is the music and don’t care one bit about the printed material, most likely the reason these CD issues have been available on the market for so long.

I do understand that some fans may consider the music more important than the printed material, possibly the reason these CD issues have been avaiable on the market for so long.

The main point here is, if nearly every other album on the face of the planet can have complete CD packages, why can’t the 12 albums mentioned above?

...if many other popular artists' albums can be reissued in their original form, why...

Again, I apologize if you don’t have a response for me. If that is true, please provide me with an e-mail address for someone who can maybe answer.

If you are unable to answer my particular questions, please provide me with the address of the correct individual.

HTH!

[Key Lime Lee]

I would send actual letters, not emails.

WAAAYYYY too easy to hit "DELETE"

[rednekkPH]

I would send actual letters, not emails.

WAAAYYYY too easy to hit "DELETE"

I agree 100%. I deal with public complaints and problems for a living, and can tell you that actual hard copy corresopndence always gets more attention and quicker action. I'm not saying this right or fair, but it is what it is.

[Parrot Monkey]

I would send actual letters, not emails.

WAAAYYYY too easy to hit "DELETE"

Very true. I will attempt to send an e-mail first. If I get no response, I will send a hard copy of the same message.

[Zanzibar]

I think what you are doing is great..I have all 12 cds that MCA released..I was blasting Havana Daydreamin the other day, and I noticed that if you have the volume up real loud you can hear a hissing sound..its probally from the analoge tapes (sorry for my spelling). its no big deal to me..but good job

[Parrot Monkey]

I think what you are doing is great..I have all 12 cds that MCA released..I was blasting Havana Daydreamin the other day, and I noticed that if you have the volume up real loud you can hear a hissing sound..its probally from the analoge tapes (sorry for my spelling). its no big deal to me..but good job

Thanks. I would appreciate it if a moderator could make this a sticky so it could it would always be on top to encourage PHs to send their own messages, but it's probably not top priority to them and I fully understand that.

I have to agree that the bad sound quality is most noticable on the Havana Daydreamin' album.

Oh, and a reminder that the e-mail address I posted at the beginning of the thread might not be sutible, so don't bombard Universal with all your e-mails just yet.

Let's hope we can uncover a more accurate address that goes directly to MCA.

Thanks for the support so far everyone.

[Jahfin]

Parrot Monkey,

I want to chime again to thank you for your tireless efforts. I've expressed many of your same concerns in the past on other boards but was also surprised to learn that so many seem to be happy with what is clearly an inferior representative of what is arguably some of Buffett's best work. Please keep us informed of what address is most appropriate to send mail to. I agree mailing in this instance would be more effective than "e-mailing". Keep up the good work, it isn't going unnoticed.

[Key Lime Lee]

its probally from the analoge tapes

*SIGH*

Analog *ISN'T* bad.

[Jahfin]

I don't think analog is bad either but earlier CDs have a warning label on them that says you may hear hiss from the analog transfer to a digital format. I remember when CDs first arrived on the market, many people were saying "it's not what you hear, it's what you don't hear" and for the well recorded CDs, I think that's true but for the ones that were rushed out, their inferior sound quality speaks for itself.

[Parrot Monkey]

Analog is not bad at all, it's just the fact that they could have spent a little more time and money on transfering the tracks to digital by using the actual master tapes in the process, not the vinyl records. That's what Jahfin was most likely refering to when speaking about the "rushed-out" CDs.

[Key Lime Lee]

Analog is not bad at all, it's just the fact that they could have spent a little more time and money on transfering the tracks to digital by using the actual master tapes in the process, not the vinyl records.

On that we agree...

There's no reason analog tape hiss should be heard on a CD unless the thing was poorly recorded in the first place.

[Parrot Monkey]

And I don't belive that JB's old albums were recorded badly. It's poor transfer that's the issue, not the recording.

[Jahfin]

I'm just going by the warning on CD packaging that was commonplace on CDs when they first came out. As I previously mentioned, I think the hiss is an issue is because so very few took the time to transfer the music properly. They were more interested in getting them out on the market in the name of the almighty bottom dollar because CDs were the newest form of media at the time. In my case all the local records stores stopped carrying vinyl, thus eliminating any choice. Unless you wanted to buy cassettes, you were pretty much forced to buy CDs.

[Parrot Monkey]

I have a feeling that MCA/Universal knows about the CD issues and just has no desire to take action. Why do I say that? Well, look at the discography pages in the MMIM booklet. The images of the 12 album covers have the catalogue #s in the corner as well as the logo on 3 of them. They obviously have no shame in these CD issues to include all that.

[Zanzibar]

Parrotmonkey..if you do send that e-mail..and if they do respond to you..can you tell me what they say ......PLLLLLEEEEEZZZZZ

[Parrot Monkey]

Parrotmonkey..if you do send that e-mail..and if they do respond to you..can you tell me what they say ......PLLLLLEEEEEZZZZZ

Sure, I will post it in it's entirety, but I'm really not holding my breath for a response.

[Parrot Monkey]

No response yet...

If they were going to, I think I would have recived it by now.

I'm out of ideas and am growing very angry even more since I found out Havana Daydreamin' was dedicated to Jimmy's grandfather, Capt. Buffett.

[meisinger]

I have a feeling that MCA/Universal knows about the CD issues and just has no desire to take action. Why do I say that? Well, look at the discography pages in the MMIM booklet. The images of the 12 album covers have the catalogue #s in the corner as well as the logo on 3 of them. They obviously have no shame in these CD issues to include all that.

In reading over this thread, I think I see where you might be confused. It's not MCA's decision. It's a UMVD employee's decision. Major labels have what are called Product Managers. These people are responsible for overseeing various catalogs and projects. The lucky soul who manages Jimmy's catalog is likely hitting his bonus year round, because of high yield and very little investment. Something will have to happen before that person is willing to put his or her reputation (and job) on the line. You would be better served writing a letter to BMG about acquiring the catalog to coincide with the new album. As someone who works for a major label, I get e-mails from "fans" all the time. Not to sound heartless, but I just delete them. I don't have time to try and get autographs for people (even if they send the guitar, picture, CD etc.) nor do I have time to see if Chris Cagle remembers working at a cafe with so and so. Here is my serious suggestion.... Start bugging retail about it. Retailers communicate with label people all the time and they are the label's customer. Label Reps will start to report interest up the chain. Perhaps then someone will look at it. I truly don't see how it would be profitable for them. In fact, I think they would loose a fortune, but they may at least look at it.

[Boomerang Ross]

Parrot Monkey, you need to purchase a record player and buy the albums for your collection. I've found most for about $1-6 bucks. No to mention I think Buffett sounds better on vinyl anyway.