Sweet Music

The record business is having its best year since Thomas A. Edison first captured the human voice on a tinfoil-covered cylinder. This week RCA Victor announced its alltime high advance sale for a single pressing--more than 1,000,000 copies of Rock 'n' Roll Hero Elvis Presley's Love Me Tender, a surprisingly restrained love ballad that was just released. The Record Industry Association of America estimated that U.S. record sales have jumped 30% over last year's $225 million. The total may approach $300 million with the Christmas rush.

The big reason is that records are cheaper ($1.98 to $3.98 for a long-player v. $5.95 in 1954) and technically better than ever, are being played on phonographs that are cheaper (less than $100 for a hifi) and better than ever.

Climbing Classics. The boom has spread to all types of records, even rolled through the hot weather when sales usually slump. In 26 weeks this year, Columbia's album of the score from Broadway's My Fair Lady (TIME, June 25) sold more than 653,000 copies, about half as many as the alltime champion, Columbia's South Pacific, has sold since 1949. Also climbing high in the sale of classical recordings, traditionally 25% of the market, and specialty albums, e.g., sports, plays, literary readings, politics. Last month ABC-Paramount brought out a collection of President Eisenhower's speeches, from D-day to his announcement of seeking a second term, already has sold 5,500 copies at $3.98. Book publisher Doubleday started its Dolphin division pressing records by sophisticated theater, nightclub and television stars. Last week Columbia Presi dent Goddard Lieberson, who induced CBS Chairman William S. Paley to back Fair Lady, took the company's headiest step yet. He issued a recording of the complete dialogue from the surrealistic play, Waiting for Godot, starring Comedian Bert Lahr.

One-Cent Sole. The fast growth of the market has been nourished by new selling techniques. Columbia poured $1,000,000 into advertising its mail-order record club to attract a new group of buyers that now represents 15% to 20% of the LP market (TIME, Aug. 29, 1955). Other companies launched their own clubs, have about 1,500,000 members who will buy an expected $20 million through the mail. RCA, which originally shunned the club idea because its dealers feared the competition, announced instead this week a coupon plan to lure buyers into dealers' shops. For $3.98 RCA sells 15 coupons which entitle a record buyer to a $1 discount on three company-selected records a month for twelve months, plus a bonus of three free records. Mercury recently pepped up business with a nationwide 1-c- sale, selling two $3.98 records for $3.99.

Capitol was one of the first to dress up record jackets with brightly colored photographs and prints. Columbia hired top artists (among them: Ben Shahn, Leo Lionni, Antonio Frasconi) to design its album covers. For the lower-browed mar ket, Decca tied in the sales campaign with popular magazines, last week spun out its Esquire series of albums decorated with long-stemmed Petty girls.

To catch the impulse buyers, many makers have started setting these eyecatching albums on racks in supermarkets and variety stores, hoping that the housewife who hears a song over the air just before she goes out to shop will pick it up along with the groceries. An average record rack in a supermart grosses about $50 to $75 a week.

But the bulk of the sales still are made in the nation's 5,000 record shops. Therefore record companies are subsidizing modernization of the cluttered shops to gear them to the new market. Columbia, RCA and Decca give free advice on store design, help dealers buy materials. Says RCA Vice President Lawrence Kanaga: "Gone are the days when the record shop was like a library where a customer really had to know his music. We're changing it into a supermarket where a buyer does not have to worry about mispronouncing Beethoven."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.