The End of Wonderland CDs?

[merlinjones]

MousePlanet today (6/26/06) carries the tragic news that Wonderland CD's are being discontinued.

http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=dl060626xx

>>Cast members tell us that the "Wonderland Music Experience," formerly known as the "CD on Demand" system, will be discontinued at Disneyland sometime in September, probably when the 50th Anniversary celebration comes to an official end. The system allows customers at 20th Century Music Company to choose from a catalogue of nearly 60 out-of-print Walt Disney Records titles, and have them burned to a CD while they wait. New titles were last added to the system in December, 2005, and an unofficial Disney music discussion board, MagicMusic.net, has a multi-page list of titles that members would like to see made available in the future.

Unfortunately, it looks like that music collectors may have to wait for another incarnation of music-on-demand to hear more from Disney's record archives. Cast members were told to suspend sales of the CDs last week, in part because they were running low of the raw materials (blank CDs and empty jewel cases) needed to produce them, while the fate of the system was discussed. Then CMs learned that the system would remain in place through September, and a new shipment of materials arrived over the weekend.

The "Wonderland Music Experience" is also offered at Walt Disney World, and we have not yet heard if the Florida version will also be removed. Disneyland CMs tell us that it is possible that the most popular titles from the program will be offered in the future as regular packaged CDs, and that the entire catalogue might wind up offered for download through the Disney Music store at iTunes.

 

[schnebs]

Well, if it turns out that the plugged gonna really get pulled, it really stinks. Guess I'd better get down there soon and make sure that I've got all the CDs I want from the collection.

Why do the parks seem to have such a problem with CD-on-demand systems? It would seem to be a natural. I was hoping they'd expand the system to include more stuff that's wanted by Disney music collectors and theme park fans, not shut down.

 

[BLM07]

Geez, that sucks. Maybe that is why Randy Thorton hasn't been around for a while, too sad to report the news. :'(

 

[The Trout]

Whew - at least I'm finally going back to DL in a week so I can grab what I want before September!

 

[Dr. Know]

No wonder Randy has been so quiet...

Oh, well. The way of the future is clear, and it isn't cd-on-demand... its downloadable mp3s, either via iTunes or some other method. I can't say this is a big surprise at all.

 

[The Trout]

Yep, the wave of the future is compressed, downloadable music files that sound lousy on my sound system at home.

YAY FOR THE AMERICAN PUBLIC.

 

[makeminemusic]

Well I guess our vinyl collections will still be useful after all, lol. :

But seriously, this is sad to see. I talked with Randy a couple of weeks ago and he hinted this was going to happen. He also said it is possible that the entire collection or parts of it will be offered via iTunes.

 

[Dr. Know]

Yep, the wave of the future is compressed, downloadable music files that sound lousy on my sound system at home.

YAY FOR THE AMERICAN PUBLIC.

I agree... it really is unacceptable. 128 kbps aacs: bah!

As I recall, the original Disneyworld Forever system was mp3-based (that is, the cds were burned from mp3s stored on a big hard drive). Does anyone know what the bitrate was?

 

[BLM07]

I've never heard of WDWF being stored as mp3s on the hard drives, I always figured they were wavs.

You guys are right, unless the audio downloads are FLAC lossless with none of that protection crap I won't pay for it.

 

[The Trout]

I agree... it really is unacceptable. 128 kbps aacs: bah!

As I recall, the original Disneyworld Forever system was mp3-based (that is, the cds were burned from mp3s stored on a big hard drive). Does anyone know what the bitrate was?

Wow, really? If that's true, I guess it makes our goal at DCTorrents of trying to rip all of DLF and WDWF into the FLAC format kind of silly...

Although, now that I think about it, if the DLF tracks were sourced from MP3s, we'd have found out about it by now - all the FLACs we've verfified for our collection have definently been from CDDA sources - they have none of the tell-tale signs of lossy compression schemes. I think the fact that the DLF tracks never sounded quite as good as we would've liked lead to the MP3-sourced rumors.

 

[merlinjones]

Yeah - the DVD situation looks dismal this year. Where are (if not Song of the South) So Dear to My Heart, The Monkey's Uncle, Dr. Syn Alias the Scarecrow, The Story of Robin Hood, The Light in the Forest, Escapade in Florence, The Horsemasters, The Prince and the Pauper, etc. - - let alone the more obscure films like Fighting Prince of Donnegal or Sword and the Rose?

Three of these star Annette which should provide at least some marketability. One has animation!

 

[X-S Tech]

Ultimate Disney mentioned that So Dear to My Heart was supposed to be coming out soon. Now it lists is as an indefinately delayed release: http://www.ultimatedisney.com/oldliveaction.htm

 

[schnebs]

And let's not even talk about the still MIA Disneyland 50th Anniversary DVD or a soundtrack CD for "Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams".

What's going on at BVHE and WDR these days? Were they taken over by the same execs that wrecked the Disney Channel?

 

[X-S Tech]

Well unfortunately for us, in both the cases of the Home Entertainment division and the Disney Channel, Raven, the Cheetah Girls, and Princesses have a much bigger fanbase than Hot Lead and Cold Feet, the Ugly Dachsund, and Tubby the Tuba. Strange I know...

 

[X-S Tech]

Oh I absolutely agree with you Bill, but you have to remember you are a discerning consumer. You think about your purchases, choose what you think that you will like, what you can live without, etc... The preteen, teen and Mothers of Toddlers crowd, is less discerning. They consume media in a much more impulsive way, and consequently drive sales much higher than you and I do. They will buy every Princess CD that comes out, because it's Princesses, regardless of the fact that Disney hasn't had any new Princesses since 92 and they probably already have every song on that CD.

 

[schnebs]

In summary, here's what most execs at BVHE, DCP, WDR, and DC apparently think: You're old. Who cares what you want?

Unfortunately, it's not something you see just among execs at one company these days...

 

[makeminemusic]

I mean maybe it TRULY is unprofitable for them in a big way. But what it says to me is that we, as loyal consumers of their product, are as disposable to them as the junk they create.

Interesting thought Bill. Funny, that one of the display items being considered for the EMP exhibit celebrating the 50th Anniversary of WDR is 100 gold records!! Must have been some profit there at one time. I would be interested to hear if the 6 CD DL set made a profit? Of course that was not a re-release (well, kind of) and did tie in with the 50th of DL.

btw Bill, Randy will be at the convention along with Greg Erhbar and a host of other Disney Music people. Would love to see you there to ask some thought provolking (sp?)questions!

 

[David S.]

This is sad, sad, news.

I was VERY excited to be able to gradually start collecting these when I first moved to Orlando, but I didn't get very far because it seemed that most of the time I tried to buy one the system was down. Had I known this would be discontinued, I would have been more aggressive and tried to buy them in larger quantities when I could.

I just went out of town for the summer and won't be back until late August or early September, and I can only hope when I get back there will be some left.

I completely agree with Bill about marketing, DVDs, etc.

What makes it even worse IMO about many of the classic films still being unavailable on DVD is that we no longer have Vault Disney to fall back on to fill in the gaps.

They could AT LEAST throw us a bone and put it back on, even at a more reduced schedule in the early morning hours when all the "tweenies" should be sleeping in order to get to school on time the next day.

Not just for the classic films, but also to show the countless episodes of the Anthology series that would most likely never get released anyway.

David

PS. I am still completely IN LOVE with living in central Florida. Since I've been renting month-to-month with FEMA money, it hasn't cost me much of my own money to get a feel for the area before making a more long-term commitment to it. I do appreciate everyone's words of caution in the past, but so far, nothing about the area or the parks has made me not want to live there. And if you could see the state of things in New Atlantis, er, New Orleans now, it is clear that ANYWHERE is better than there!

 

[Papibear]

As I don't live in California anymore, nor Florida, and don't get to visit the Disney parks on any regular basis, I'm glad I got the two CDs I got on last year's trip (Walt Disney Takes You To Disneyland and the score for Secrets of Life). I hope whatever happens some of the titles I still have an interest in will be available.

 

[schnebs]

Sorry for coming across as bitter up above, folks, but I really don't understand the business logic.

WDR has created a system that gives them the best of both worlds - the ability to make money off of older catalog titles by selling them to folks with loads of disposable income (well, okay, maybe not loads, but quite a bit more than the average 12-year-old), and they don't have any worries about spending a ton of money on creating more product then there is demand.
Yet they're going to chuck that system because they don't have people lined up around the block to use the system.

They've literally got vaults full of audio and video that haven't been seen for years and audio from the parks that's admittedly obscure but well-loved - all of which that the aforementioned folks with disposable income would love to buy. But rather make a small amount of money on each of a series of releases, which would add up to a big pot of profits overall, they'd rather focus solely on one narrow demographic because they can move a lot more product in one shot if the product hits it big.

As a stockholder, I annoyed that the Company is turning it's back on a large potential revenue stream. As a fan, I'm frustrated by being repaid for my loyalty by beoing ignored.