RECORD CLUBS IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28451, 4 December 1957, Page 22

RECORD CLUBS IN BRITAIN

Membership Now Near 100,000 (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 3. Gramophone record clubs have recently been gaining a foothold in Britain, says a special correspondent of ‘‘The Times,” who suggests that membership has grown to about 100,000 sine? such clubs were started two years ago. Apart from, selling records at reduced prices, the clubs, he adds, may influence British music as a whole. In recent weeks, for instance, one has been in a position to offer substantial help to three of Britain’s less affluent orchestras. Record clubs work on the same principle as book of the month clubs. They are basically mail order concerns which, by eliminating the middleman or record dealer sell long-playing records to members at low prices, sometimes less than half the shop i price. They have a big advantage in keeping prices down in that they know in advance how many records they may expect to sell and therefore manufacture.

The industry, not surprisingly, adds the correspondent, takes a mixed view of these clubs, which may skim some of the cream off the market for records. There are those, though, who consider such clubs will encourage a wider interest in classical music which will lead to more records being sold in shops as club members seek to extend their collections. On the other hand .there are those who say they are bad for the industry because they are unfair on dealers, who hold such a wide range of record companies’ stocks.