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Post by mkarns on Oct 16, 2013 12:55:48 GMT -5
I work for a newspaper, and we make back issues available to customers for a fee. Considering the huge price for the book, I wonder if it might be cheaper to see if Billboard does back issues for a fee. Then, just buy the issues that aren't available through Google Books.... I know that's taking the extreme "long way around" but at this point I'll take what I can get. I also actually SAW the books at a local record store in Pittsburgh a long time ago (when they first came out) and they were only $75 each. I SHOULD have bought it then....man! I'm glad I bought Pop Memories 1890-1954 at a bookstore in 1994 for $28. Currently it's out of print, and the cheapest copy on Amazon is $100. At the moment the one new hardback copy they have is $1,820.83. "A Century of Pop Music", published in 1999, is one I wished I purchased for a long time. Finally I found it in a library and laboriously copied the yearly charts, going back to 1900.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2013 13:26:47 GMT -5
Reading between the lines when I called Whitburn's office last year, I got the sense his business is just hanging on by a thread, which is why they are publishing the Top Pop Singles book every two years; its their best seller and guaranteed income generator. Sad. Really I'm not all that surprised. When you think about it, music charts is a niche market to appeal to. Then, when that niche market doesn't really grow much anymore because most people nowadays don't care much about the charts, the number of interested buyers decreased. Then, when you encompass the fact that many of those former buyers themselves probably don't care much about where things these days chart, there isn't going to be a mad dash to buy all these new books that are put out. If all you care about for instance was the 50s-2005 for example and after that you lost all interest in current radio, doubtful you are buying the book if you already have one covering those years you cared about as in depth as one can reasonably expect. That's a problem with reference books in many cases, period and why the market you appeal to is so important. I don't know anyone be it a person, school, university, or anyone else that bought a brand new set of encyclopedias every year. But, encyclopedias have a wider market and appeal so while those who want them may buy it every 10 years or so, there's a large enough audience spread over the years it's profitable. At least I assume it still is.
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Post by rayshae3 on Oct 16, 2013 13:55:43 GMT -5
I work for a newspaper, and we make back issues available to customers for a fee. Considering the huge price for the book, I wonder if it might be cheaper to see if Billboard does back issues for a fee. Then, just buy the issues that aren't available through Google Books.... I know that's taking the extreme "long way around" but at this point I'll take what I can get. I also actually SAW the books at a local record store in Pittsburgh a long time ago (when they first came out) and they were only $75 each. I SHOULD have bought it then....man! I'm glad I bought Pop Memories 1890-1954 at a bookstore in 1994 for $28. Currently it's out of print, and the cheapest copy on Amazon is $100. At the moment the one new hardback copy they have is $1,820.83. "A Century of Pop Music", published in 1999, is one I wished I purchased for a long time. Finally I found it in a library and laboriously copied the yearly charts, going back to 1900. Same here with both books (I got my Century book early in 2001). I also bought their Disco book in the winter of 2004. And when it first went out-of-print, and I saw soaring prices on e-bay, at the time I was thinking only if I knew and purchased multiple copies of the Disco/Dance book, I could have made serious investment there…of course, Whitburn brought the Disco chart book back a couple of years ago, on a “print-on-demand” basis, for $69.95 (still about $25 more than what I paid for mine direct from Record Research, including the promotion they had for the book, in 2004).
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Post by dukelightning on Oct 16, 2013 14:00:43 GMT -5
Paul, I'm a good example of what you alluded to. I bought Whitburn's Pop Singles books in 1979, 82, 87 and 94(covering the period through the preceding year) and stopped there. Partly because I had stopped listening to countdown shows and partly because I had lost interest in the Hot 100 with Soundscan and all of its issues. And I could really care less if Puff Daddy had 20 weeks at #1 or barely made the Hot 100. I'm sure a lot of people that got hooked on Casey during the 90s and 2000s when he was counting down songs on a chart that was not the Hot 100 could not have much interest in a book that chronicled that chart. So it is a combination of the older generation not caring about the charts/music anymore and the younger generation not caring about a book dealing with a chart that was not their go-to chart. Not to mention all the data available on the internet at no charge. But Joel Whitburn certainly made his money for many, many years before the slowdown. So need to shed a tear about that.
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Post by cpastrick on Oct 16, 2013 17:33:16 GMT -5
I'm glad I bought Pop Memories 1890-1954 at a bookstore in 1994 for $28. Currently it's out of print, and the cheapest copy on Amazon is $100. At the moment the one new hardback copy they have is $1,820.83. "A Century of Pop Music", published in 1999, is one I wished I purchased for a long time. Finally I found it in a library and laboriously copied the yearly charts, going back to 1900. Same here with both books (I got my Century book early in 2001). I also bought their Disco book in the winter of 2004. And when it first went out-of-print, and I saw soaring prices on e-bay, at the time I was thinking only if I knew and purchased multiple copies of the Disco/Dance book, I could have made serious investment there…of course, Whitburn brought the Disco chart book back a couple of years ago, on a “print-on-demand” basis, for $69.95 (still about $25 more than what I paid for mine direct from Record Research, including the promotion they had for the book, in 2004). Yep, same here with the Pop Memories book. I bought it for my dad, which he loved. But after his passing, I'm now the owner of it. I love the book. But I got it for something around $30 also. I didn't realize it was such a hot item. I'll be sure to hang onto it! And my Pop Singles book as well.
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Post by tpanther775 on Oct 16, 2013 21:36:19 GMT -5
Reading between the lines when I called Whitburn's office last year, I got the sense his business is just hanging on by a thread, which is why they are publishing the Top Pop Singles book every two years; its their best seller and guaranteed income generator. Sad. Really I'm not all that surprised. When you think about it, music charts is a niche market to appeal to. Then, when that niche market doesn't really grow much anymore because most people nowadays don't care much about the charts, the number of interested buyers decreased. Then, when you encompass the fact that many of those former buyers themselves probably don't care much about where things these days chart, there isn't going to be a mad dash to buy all these new books that are put out. If all you care about for instance was the 50s-2005 for example and after that you lost all interest in current radio, doubtful you are buying the book if you already have one covering those years you cared about as in depth as one can reasonably expect. That's a problem with reference books in many cases, period and why the market you appeal to is so important. I don't know anyone be it a person, school, university, or anyone else that bought a brand new set of encyclopedias every year. But, encyclopedias have a wider market and appeal so while those who want them may buy it every 10 years or so, there's a large enough audience spread over the years it's profitable. At least I assume it still is. Thats why i'm thinking he may have a Cashbox books in the works. Just so it will be something different. Just like the Record World/Music Vendor book he did 2 years ago. I have that one. It was nice to see the differences in that chart and the Hot 100. I know Cashbox had it's differences also. I wish they would reprint some of their books that are out of print. It may be a reason why they don't. It's like you stated to me, Paul. That Billboard may have only allowed him to print a certain number of books.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2013 21:41:32 GMT -5
What id like are books or DVD roms reprinting the R&R charts.
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Post by SFGuy on Oct 18, 2013 5:32:57 GMT -5
Glad I bought the DVDs when I did. Hopefully I'll have the $$$ to buy the 50s book that is getting released. I preordered the 50's book for completion sake since I own the 60s-2000s. I remember trying to order the 70s and 80s book because AT40 was starting up on XM. I did get the 80s book but the 70s were always out of stock and the secondary market was way too high ($200-500). Fortunately, the 70s book was reprinted by Whitburn (as was the 80s).
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Post by kchkwong on Oct 18, 2013 6:19:10 GMT -5
I bought the 80s book many years ago and I have used it so much the spine is now damaged. I'm still thinking how to repair it. Then I bought the 90s book but only got the 70s (along with the 60s and 2000s) book only a couple of years ago after I discovered that Premiere was re-airing AT40.
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jebsib
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Post by jebsib on Oct 18, 2013 10:50:51 GMT -5
The 2000s book is terrible. Smaller than the other 4 decade books, so it sticks out on your bookshelf; The 2000s charts were very colorful with lots of graphics and photos; The book is in darkened B&W, and many of the pages look like mud. Very disappointing. I know that budget was an issue (4 color for 500+ pages would have been astronomical) but still....
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2013 11:06:55 GMT -5
Didn't realize it was terrible in book form. I have the DVD so it's in color.
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Post by erik on Oct 19, 2013 7:57:12 GMT -5
WOW!
Somehow, I ended up with two extra copies of Whitburn's Seventies Hot 100 Charts book (long story, hard to explain). I decided to hang on to them and possibly sell them but I always figured they would never be worth much $$. Maybe it's time to dig them up and look to eBay.
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Post by Ponderous Man on Nov 5, 2013 8:35:35 GMT -5
I, as I'm sure many others, LOVE Google Books for having a lot of the Billboard magazines online for us to peruse. However, there are some gaps in the 80s that are sadly disturbing. There is nothing from April of 1983 until basically the end of 1984. As well as all of 1987 and 1988 and 1989. Does anyone know where (short of paying hundreds of dollars for Joel's chart books) I could get a look at the whole of the Hot 100 charts (in print) I desperate to see all of the charts....I know...GEEK! Here's another site that has the full Hot 100 charts: www.song-database.com/The only problem is you have to pay $20 in order to continue to see all of the charts.
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