[2013-03-25] Album "5"

[Euphoria]

During her live chat she said that half the songs had been recorded already. No telling if that's true or not, though.

[melovelily]

Even if it wasn't true , it would probably be by now since the chat was like in june

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by Panther

Has it crossed anyone's mind that the pre-order box set was a way to actually fund the making of the album without Sony having to risk very much money up front? You know, a bit like buying property 'off-plan' but with even less transparency? I really would love to know how many tracks have already been recorded at this stage. I suspect not very many given the amount of time she has spent in the studios that we know about.

I'm not sure quite what this is leading to. I think it might be implying that Sony thinks this album is a very risky venture and they want some money up front for the cost of producing it in which case I don't think they would do that. If it was that risky, they wouldn't want to take the risk financially, not to mention they wouldn't want to take a hit to their reputation, plus the fact they'd have to refund the money if the album gets cancelled. They don't need this album.

On the other hand if they are sure of this album and they just want to get this money up front, that would probably make good business sense. The sooner they get some money, the more they can make that money work for them by re-investing it in something else. So that's a good possibility. Plus the info they get from seeing how many people order it, might be a valuable indicator as to how much time, effort and promotion they should put into this album.

As far as the album being delayed until march, it's kind of another big disappointment. You can only dangle a carrot for so long, but I think it has one very good upside. I was worried that if both the release of the album and Les Enfoires happened in january, she might not have time to participate in L.E. and that would be a huge loss, so once again, I'll look on the bright side.

I think there is another upside too. I think her getting all those tatoos on one arm was an effort to keep one good profile. Once the album was done, I think we would have lost the other arm too, because then I don't think it would have mattered to her and she would have gotten back on course for gearing up for Rin tin tin's event, which is also in march. Time will tell.

[Panther]

It's not really leading up to anything Scruffy it just occurred to me that it would explain a few things. I'm afraid I don't share your enthusiasm for Sony's 'reputation'. Don't forget they took a massive hit last year with the hacking scandal, not only for allowing it to happen but also because of the inept way they handled it. They are no better or worse than any other large corporation and are fighting for every penny / cent these days just like everyone else. You have to admit that the whole project has been pretty poorly handled to date and there can only really be one of two reasons for that: general incompetance, or that the project has been designed from the outset to be funded by taking people's money up front for the box-set on the basis of false promises re delivery times - in which case that is pretty sharp practice but it wouldn't surprise me one bit. To the best of my knowledge we've never actually been given a reason for the delays have we?

[Scruffydog777]

You're absolutely right that it has been poorly handled. Really makes me have my doubts about Sony at times but I still feel, the longer they take, the better this album will be.

[ALS]

I think they know what they have with Alizée. It's not like she is over the hill age wise she still has many years ahead of her for a career. The public in France we hear supposedly thinks she is some has been but that doesn't seem to fly with their actions. When Alizée appears on French television that particular program pretty much has their highest viewership ratings for the year. That type of behavior by the public doesn't happen with a has been.

[lefty12357]

I don't think the pre-order box set was put out to raise expense money for the album. To a company like Sony, the money they would get after expenses is peanuts compared to what they are used to investing in a project.

I think the pre-order may serve a purpose, though. It tells them how much pre-promo interest there is in the new album and it is also a goodwill gesture to the hardcore fans. Of course they charged our cards up front to cover the costs of manufacturing the pre-order set so they wouldn't get stuck with unsold boxes. But it just seems to me that Sony would not have started taking orders so far ahead of the release date, so I believe they really intended it to release this fall. That's why I don't think this is a case of a project just getting dragged out. I believe something triggered a change which has led to this delay. Whatever happened to delay the album must have happened after the pre-order was offered and I think it is a bit of an embarrassment for them. They're sitting on a lot of people's money right now and they have to either deliver the package or refund the money at some point. It's bad public relations to drag such a thing out.

If I had to guess, I'd say that maybe Sony was not real pleased with the response to the single and decided the album needed some reworking. Of course there could be a number of factors at play and at this point it is all speculation.

[Panther]

Indeed, we can only speculate. I'm sorry for being so pessimistic and cynical but I'm just not very good at coping with disappointment. I was so excited at the prospect of this new album when it was first announced but my enthusiasm has waned a bit now sadly. I just wish the people involved would be a bit more up front with the fans. They'd get a lot more respect if they just came out and said exactly what the problem was. The truth will come out eventually, it always does with these sorts of things.

[Fall]

MM suggested it might be that they spent their budget for this quarter

If I were to guess...everything revolves around money. Sooo in January a new budget gets made...Sooo that's what I think the real problem is...

They spent there budget for this quarter and can't spend more until the next quarter...

I say they are waiting until 2013 to get the new $ to spend.

You have to stay in your budget...something tells me they did not and are stuck right now.

I think that makes sense, because from tweets and instagram it doesn't look like Alizée is in the studio working on the album, so she could be on a break until the new quarter

[Jake04]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

...she would have gotten back on course for gearing up for Rin tin tin's event, which is also in march. Time will tell.

This could be a good thing. May be she'd be very busy promoting the album in March that she'd be forced to skip Rin tin tin's event!