Why No 20th Century Master Christmas CD?

tomswift2002

Well-Known Member
I was just looking at my copy of the non-seasonal "20th Century Masters" CD, and it got me wondering why we haven't seen for Christmas a Christmas version of this budget line. I know that I've seen other singers and groups where the album was either 'newly' mastered from the group's repertoire or whole albums (like the Statler Brothers 'Christmas Card') have been re-branded.

Does anyone have any idea why there was no budget Christmas release from the Carpenters? Even if Disc 1 or 2 of the Time-Life "Christmas With..." Could've been reissued under this banner.
 
My guess would be that, he has total control over the Christmas albums, Christmas Portrait the lp, the Special Edition, and the Christmas Collection. Maybe he does not want to mess with that, or want anyone to mess up what they created. Or could be that because many of the songs segued into one another, and he does not want to break that up and have a hodge podge Christmas collection that many other artists put out since the 70s onwards. The Carpenters added class, I feel to their Christmas songs.
 
My guess would be that, he has total control over the Christmas albums, Christmas Portrait the lp, the Special Edition, and the Christmas Collection. Maybe he does not want to mess with that, or want anyone to mess up what they created. Or could be that because many of the songs segued into one another, and he does not want to break that up and have a hodge podge Christmas collection that many other artists put out since the 70s onwards. The Carpenters added class, I feel to their Christmas songs.
Have you listened to the Time-Life CD set? That's why I was suggesting that they could've taken disc 1 or 2 from that set, as the segues, either for good or bad, are already broken up. On disc 1 What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? sounds odd where it is, as there is no segue from Silent Night, nor does it segue into An Old-Fashioned Christmas. Really, by comparison, the Christmas With The Carpenters set feels very choppy, especially when you compare it to the 1984 compilation Christmas Portrait: Special Edition that tends to flow between the tracks from both albums like the original Christmas Portrait.
 
My guess is that since Christmas Portrait: Special Edition continues to be a strong seller every year, "the powers that be" (Universal, Richard or whomever) don't want to cut into its sales by releasing a competing product. It makes sense from a business perspective. There was a 2014 article that stated Christmas Portrait sold 1.95 million copies between 1991 and 2014. If there is still a demand for the full priced product, why put out a cheaper alternative? They would need to sell twice as many $4.99 20th Century Masters Christmas CDs to make the same as one $9.99 Christmas Portrait. (Since production costs were paid off long ago, the difference in wholesale price between the two is pretty much pure profit.)
 
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