I think you are correct that probably blue amberol records were profitable until 1927 because it cost so little to make them - the masters were already made for the discs so no recording costs, the distribution network was already in place for the discs and all the equipment was long depreciated. Bill
-- Bill Taney Sent From My iPad On Apr 16, 2011, at 5:04 AM, "DanKj" <ediso...@verizon.net> wrote: > After all, the phonograph was TAE's favorite invention & "baby", so it's > understandable that it turned out to be a not-profitable hobby. The > production of Diamond Discs still looks laborious and complicated, so that's > also no surprise if they didn't turn a profit. (What did the jobbers pay for > $1 discs, and what did the dealers pay the jobbers?) I suspect that the > Blue Amberol line might've been shown to be less profitable than they > thought, if they'd properly divided the costs of recording the original Disc > masters between Disc and Cylinder issues. > > I think it all goes to show that Edison, who certainly had at least as many > faults as the rest of us, still wasn't the "greedy b*stard" that some > uninformed hero-killers insist. He could've been many times more wealthy, as > Henry Ford noted, but was content to make enough cash to feed his invention > habit, take care of his family and have some left over. > > > ----- Original Message ----- >> >> Arthur Walsh comments near the end that Disc Records were "always a >> looser" as far as he could tell in terms of money and then provides data >> from accounting showing that indeed from 1925- they lost around the tune >> of 1.7MM. Is that really true - even when sales were brisk in 1918-22 that >> Diamond Discs lost Edison money? Or is that not the whole picture.. >> >> Also interesting was a comment that Blue Amberol Cylinders had lost money >> since 1927 and the implication is that while small in sales it was >> profitable to make Blue Amberol records up until very close to the end of >> the Phonograph division. > > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
