Revelations During Tax Preparation

[billroper]

Well, I'm making progress on the Dodeka taxes. I've entered all of the closing inventory data (with the exception of a couple of numbers that I'll need daisy_knotwise's help to interpret). And this pretty much settles one issue.

We are out of the tape business. Not counting filkertom's tapes -- a chunk of which we actually sold to him to fulfill orders -- and a few tapes given to other artists, we sold a total of fifteen tapes last year from our manufactured inventory.

*sigh*

Comments

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

I assume there's been a long, slow decline in tape sales?

[billroper]

Oh, yeah. Actually, tape sales have been in the toilet for some years now. It's just that the basement and the back of the minivan are both filling up with CDs, so we're going to have to do something.

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Minstrosity was out of the tape business since our second album, basically.

[catalana.livejournal.com]

So what does that mean in terms of your actual practices?

[billroper]

We're still sorting that out, but the most likely thing is that most of the performers who want their residual cassettes will get them gratis, unless there are royalty issues. As far as tape sales at cons, I could remove that box from the car and never notice in the sales totals.

I've still got a chunk of Wail Songs tapes on consignment, so I need to sort that out with Bob; also about 100 copies of Meg Davis' Captain Jack and the Mermaid which I once got in trade. Sadly, Meg can't figure out how to sell her remaining copies either...

[hms42]

What Wailsongs tapes do you have left? I would be interested in picking them up as a bulk purchase if you want to get rid of them....

Harold S.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...there's a filk of Kipling's "The King" in there somewhere...let me futz with it a little...

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

"Farewell, Romance!" the singer said,
"No more shall bard be called to play,
Now cylinders with beeswax spread
Can ape his songs by night or day,
Tom Edison has tolled the knell
For such as we--Romance, farewell!"

"Farewell, Romance!" the clocksmith cried.
"Tables are turned by lightning's power,
The cunning works that were our pride
Have wound to this, their final hour.
The public flocks to what is new;
Our trade is dead--Romance, adieu!"

Farewell, Romance!" the jazzman spoke.
"'T is only steel that magnets move.
The scene is split, the spell is broke,
We've gone and lost our spiral groove.
The shape of tape is just so wrong,
Like, it's the pits--Romance, so long!"

"Romance!" the ageing hippies keen.
"He liked it when the sound was rough,
Nor used computer or machine
To fix up What was good enough.
CDs are sterile, soulless, dry,
Fit for machines--Romance, goodbye!"

i leave the fifth verse as an exercise for the reader, since RK's original would probably do about as well. If anyone can make it more relevant, feel free.

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

Like my filk of "Pornographic Chocolates" (TTTO the Beatles' "Octopus's Garden"), the last verse should be written later, after the Other Shoe has dropped.


In my case, it was after Alan & I drove from Lansing MI to Indianopolis via Fort Wayne, and Dave Alway drove from Kalamazoo MI there via Kokomo. He reported that the billboard he had previously told me about (that I wrote verses 1 & 2 about) had been replaced by a morality crusade, and viola! I had my 3rd verse.

[billroper]

Works for me. Thanks!

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

It's a long-standing paradox of fandom, that we heirs to the future are so saddened to see old technologies waste away...

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can agree to this even as I change over everything I have into MP3 and put the CDs into storage as hardcopy backups. Just this weekend I posted a LJ entry seeking homes for my tapes because I can't stand to just throw them out even though I know I'll never actually play them again.

Of course there are some tapes that I will not give away until they are firmly in the "replaced" catagories ... quite a few of which I can do the next time I visit Bill's sales table.

[hms42]

I'll take any filk tapes still available... (Dr. Demento too.)

Harold S.

[billroper]

Oh, I'm not sad to see the technology go away. I'm just sad about having over $1000 of completely worthless inventory. :)

[ericcoleman]

I think that 3 or 4 of those were to me ...

I really think that in a few years CDs will be hard to sell. Dodeka will have to have a place to DL songs.

[daddy-guido.livejournal.com]

Sadly,

What you do is, figure out what the lowest price you can sell them at is to make it worth hauling the box one last time, and sell them for that. $1.00 cassettes might find a home. Then you have a write-off for the taxes next year.

OR

Find a place to donate them - library, nursing home, Salvation Army, goodwill, etc. Spread the joy of filkdom to the less fortunate mundanes of the world. Someone might hear something they like, and call you to order more.

OR

"free tape of your choice with ANY purchase" until they're gone.

OR

Ebay, dude. Sell em in bulk to make it worth shipping them.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Any chance that you will ever release Who Let Him In Here? and Domino Death as CDs?

[billroper]

Most of the (clearable) material on those ended up on Digital Acoustic Compilation. Tom may re-record some of the rest of it eventually...

[hms42]

Tom is planning (and mentioned on iTom, today) that he is rerecording the songs from those tapes as an album called "Sounds Familar" and has tentative plans to release it early next year. (I am paraphrasing what he said today.)

Harold S.