Tim Baxter completely missed my point [040709 MMDigest, Computer
Music Files & Paper Music Rolls].  The vast majority of rolls in
my collection are recuts, mostly Keystone, some Play-Rite, some
Klavier/Powell, a few QRS and smattering of others like Richard Riley.
I even have some original arrangements by Doug Henderson, love him or
hate him.  I also was in the business of selling recuts with Play-Rite
as my "jobber", as Tim likes to describe his suppliers.  I'm well aware
of Tim's business and I even find a few of his titles interesting.
A few of Robert DeLand's rolls are of interest to me as well.

The problem is that I'm still limited by what the proprietors have
chosen to recut, rather than being able to choose myself from a large
library.  When shipping costs nearly half of what a single roll costs,
buying a single roll becomes expensive.  I'd feel better buying six
rolls at a shot.  I'd buy one or two less interesting rolls to get me
to six, but not three, four or five.

Gene Gerety did a great job extolling the virtues of his laser
recutting machinery and his belief in the "recut on demand" business
model I described in the MMD some months previous to his posting.
My comments in the last MMD had to do with the fact that no one has
risen to the challenge and make that vision a reality.  There are
plenty of recutters out there cutting rolls; the problem is they are
all recutting too many copies of too few titles.  I've "put my money
where my mouth is" many times in the 12 years I've had my Duo-Arts.

People leave the recut business mostly because they cannot afford to
keep unsold inventory.  I know that for a fact, because that's why QRS
and Play-Rite left the reproducing roll market -- just ask John Malone
or Bob Berkman.  What's most disturbing is that nobody seems to be even
trying to solicit input from the roll-buying public to assess demand.

When I ran Patriot I would not recut any titles without having at
least 50% of a production run "sold" before placing the order.  This
frustrated some of my customers, but those who were patient got recuts
of titles they enjoyed.  Once in a while, I took a chance on a title
with more limited appeal, but the "vote for titles" technique was
generally a successful one.  Had marriage and fatherhood not
intervened, I might have even continued my business.

Before the widespread use of the internet I copied/typed the entire
AMICA membership directory into my computer to print out mailing labels
and sent out lists of potential titles.  With the internet I could have
largely eliminated the printing and postage costs.  I could receive
payment via PayPal so that customers could use their credit cards.
Why other recutters don't take such an approach is beyond me.

Consider also that the commitment to buy is almost always kept.
I don't think I ever had a customer back out.  Most selected a number
of titles.  Few bought less than 3 or 4 rolls.  If I had the entire
Chase/Gerety collection to work with I would have been so much better
off. I was limited to my on collection of Duo-Art titles, the masters
at Play-Rite and borrowed rolls which were always hard to get.

Bottom line is that I don't think recutters are serving the marketplace
very well.  Most folks I know agree with me.  When visitors some to my
home and ask if rolls can still be had for reproducing pianos, I have
to answer yes, but the catalog is very limited and you can't just call
a number with a credit card or hit a web site to get your order filled.
The Luddites are the recutters.  They're stuck with outmoded snail-mail
technology for ordering and a "you can have it in any color you want as
long as it's black" attitude as far as product goes.  With this as our
reality the future of the hobby seems grim.

This is not a "flame" against recutters, but the observations of
someone who has spent quite a bit of money on recuts over the years and
someone with first hand experience selling rolls. As it stands, it's
just too difficult to get a copy of composition "X" for reproducing
system "Y".  I hope that won't always be the case.  The music is what
makes our instruments consistently interesting.

The problem is we all have different taste in music.  I believe that
technology offers us the opportunity to address this problem.

Ed Chaban