From: owner-velvet-station-digest@smoe.org (velvet-station-digest)
To: velvet-station-digest@smoe.org
Subject: velvet-station-digest V3 #29
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velvet-station-digest     Saturday, March 18 2000     Volume 03 : Number 029



                               Today's Subjects:
                               -----------------
  [VS] Ouch! Lucia has hit the shores of America....     [Wmvrrvrrmm@aol.com]
  RE: [VS] Ouch! Lucia has hit the shores of America....  [Philippa.Demonte@]
  [VS] The prices ...                  [Yngve Hauge <onealien@mo.himolde.no>]
  Re: RE: [VS] Ouch! Lucia has hit the shores of America....  [Wmvrrvrrmm@ao]
  Re: RE: [VS] Ouch! Lucia has hit the shores of America....  [Yngve Hauge <]
  [VS] ADMIN: scheduled power outage (fwd)  [Yngve Hauge <onealien@mo.himold]
  [VS] all around the world                      [Philippa.Demonte@bmg.co.uk]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 04:17:35 EST
From: Wmvrrvrrmm@aol.com
Subject: [VS] Ouch! Lucia has hit the shores of America....

An American friend of mine just took a look for Lucia on the internet and 
said "Damn, I see that Tower now (finally) has Lucia on their website for a 
ridiculous price of $45.99."

I'll also state that I've put together my initial sketch for a Velvet Belly 
Page.
What I'll say is that it's a little spaced out in terms of proportions, 
because this is the way the idea has expressed itself so far to me. Maybe I 
should have the pages blown up to cover a billboard on the side of a building 
and then I should photograph that and show the photographs on the internet 
instead. If your screen is set on an 800 X 600, 95 Hz resolution, it's okay. 
Anything lower, you might come complaining to me that it needs to be a little 
more compact because of all the scrolling you might have to do.  So I'm 
working out how to make a more compact version while retaining a spaced out 
quality.  Also I don't want to break the page up into boxes and frames, but 
it seems I might have to go back on that. It's also likely that I'll break 
the title page down into five seperate pages each with their own bits of 
information such as links etc.

The Velvet Belly Page
http://www.geocities.com/wmmvrrvrrmm/velvetbelly/velvetb.html


I've put a few of the articles up, and only a couple of links. Please give me 
the addresses of anymore links to be put up. I'm also concerned about links 
that are likely to be temporary, maybe they should be put in another section.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 11:38:50 +0100
From: Philippa.Demonte@bmg.co.uk
Subject: RE: [VS] Ouch! Lucia has hit the shores of America....

Ouch indeed!!!

Even taking into consideration import charges, taxes, postage and all the rest, 
hat's one helluva mark-up that Tower are making there!!!

Thanks for bringing this to my notice!!!  
Dominic - does your American friend know what the US Virgin Megastores have priced <<Lucia>> at?

If Virgin are priced lower, then we can force Tower to cut their price.

If Virgin have priced at the same, then I'm going to need the names and contact e-mail addresses or phone 
numbers of every single US fan that we know, and then pass it on to the BMG office in New York to show
that there is a significant demand for Velvet Belly's music (but also a limit to how much people are willing to pay!)

 - Philippa - 

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Wmvrrvrrmm@aol.com [SMTP:Wmvrrvrrmm@aol.com]
> Sent:	17 March 2000 09:18
> To:	velvet-station@smoe.org
> Subject:	[VS] Ouch! Lucia has hit the shores of America....
> 
> An American friend of mine just took a look for Lucia on the internet and 
> said "Damn, I see that Tower now (finally) has Lucia on their website for a 
> ridiculous price of $45.99."
> 
> .

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 14:47:32 +0100 (CET)
From: Yngve Hauge <onealien@mo.himolde.no>
Subject: [VS] The prices ...

Hiya,

CDNow isn't very much cheaper it seems, so something should be done
with the import prices cause they are really really too high. 

You were asking about potensial CD buyers in the US, but you shouldn't
forget that you have to include Asia and Australia as well as my contacts
are on all continents at least. Ecto alone where people seem to like VB
and would probably buy the albums if available to a reasonable price got
300+ subscribers. I've only dumped into 1 person not liking them since I
started to spread the KaTe cover around (At least 2 promos did end up in
the US - both ectophiles)

- -- Yngve

n.p. One of the Buffy - The Vampire Slayer soundtracks
                                     

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 14:06:40 EST
From: Wmvrrvrrmm@aol.com
Subject: Re: RE: [VS] Ouch! Lucia has hit the shores of America....

In a message dated 17/3/00 10:46:47 am, Philippa.Demonte@bmg.co.uk writes:

>If Virgin are priced lower, then we can force Tower to cut their price.

No appearance on the Virgin US website of Lucia as yet.
My American friend from Amazon.com, has decided to take the liberty of 
ordering his copy of Lucia from Amazon.co.uk  (one VAT has been deducted) for 
less than half the price. Seems fair enough.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 20:29:11 +0100 (CET)
From: Yngve Hauge <onealien@mo.himolde.no>
Subject: Re: RE: [VS] Ouch! Lucia has hit the shores of America....

On Fri, 17 Mar 2000 Wmvrrvrrmm@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 17/3/00 10:46:47 am, Philippa.Demonte@bmg.co.uk writes:
> 
> >If Virgin are priced lower, then we can force Tower to cut their price.
> 
> No appearance on the Virgin US website of Lucia as yet.
> My American friend from Amazon.com, has decided to take the liberty of 
> ordering his copy of Lucia from Amazon.co.uk  (one VAT has been
> deducted) for less than half the price. Seems fair enough.

Amazon UK will solve many problems CD-buyers on both side of the atlantic
have had concerning very high import prices. I just hope that they now
will speed up the plans to make paypal.com open for people outside USA, so
that we can get rid of using credit cards to buy stuff online. They are
talking about it at least, so it might come this year.

- -- Yngve


                                     

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 20:31:58 +0100 (CET)
From: Yngve Hauge <onealien@mo.himolde.no>
Subject: [VS] ADMIN: scheduled power outage (fwd)

A msg from the smoe god :) So if you don't get any mail from smoe
from 6AM Eastern time and 10 hours from there then it is because 
we can't get manage without power.

- -- Yngve


Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 11:31:32 -0500
From: Jeff Wasilko <jeffw@smoe.org>
To: guests@smoe.org
Subject: ADMIN: scheduled power outage

The location where smoe.org is housed will be without power for
10 hours Saturday morning (starting at 6AM or so).

jeff

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 22:16:00 +0100
From: Philippa.Demonte@bmg.co.uk
Subject: [VS] all around the world

Hi

There are a lot of issues which Yngve and Dominic have raised today about availability of 
Velvet Belly's music around the world.  EVERYBODY CALM DOWN!!!!

It's my job to try and get Velvet Belly's music released internationally (i.e. outside of Norway) on BMG. 
 
Some countries are releasing later than others (e.g. UK and Germany). 
 
Other countries are looking to see what progress is being made in the territories where 'Lucia' has been released 
before they decide when to release (e.g. Australia, Hong Kong and US) partly because it takes a lot of time/effort and money to get 
attention for Velvet Belly and partly because radio stations / tv channels / press / record shops abroad won't take any 
notice of them until they are 'famous' in another big country.

Like it or not, that's reality.

So, rather than getting angry and frustrated at lack of availability or how slowly things are going, 
we can achieve more if you help me:

* If you live in Norway (or a country where 'Lucia' has been released) and you can't find Velvet Belly's music in your local record store 
 - tell me - I can then get BMG to find out why this is the case
 - ask your store if they have VB's music in stock - retailers want you to remain their customer, 
		so if they realise that there is a demand for something, they will often get it in stock

* If you live in a country where 'Lucia' is available on import, but you don't want to buy it because the retail price is too high
 - tell me where you saw the album available and at what price it was at
 - if you know of other fans in your country who think the same, send me a list with their names and contacts (e.g. e-mail address) - I can then use 
	these lists as proof to BMG in the relevant country that they should give the album a full release

* If you live in a country where 'Lucia' is not available, but you are desperate to get hold of Velvet Belly's music
 - again, send me a list of fans with contacts, which I can send to the relevant BMG office.
 - get as many of your friends as possible to leave messages on Velvet Belly's guest book on the website 
	(it's even more proof to BMG offices, especially when there are a lot of messages on there from countries other than Norway or the Netherlands) 
- - if you continue to get hold of Velvet Belly's CDs via fans in Norway or internet sites in other countries, then there won't be any pressure for the 
	BMG office to release their material in your country.

I hope you can understand what I'm trying to tell you here.

I've got to go now - e-mail you again next week.
 - fLip - 

------------------------------

End of velvet-station-digest V3 #29
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