Idolator's Anthony Miccio has brought attention to the fact that Sony has started Icon Collectables, a boutique business dedicated to selling high-quality art repros of photographs of artists in the Columbia roster, ranging from $300 to $1,700. $1,500 will get you a black and white, 16" x 20" "Johnny Cash Portrait of Brooding Intensity" while a max $749 nabs you repro of the proofs of Billy Joel posing in 12 different shots for The Stranger cover. The selling point: "We all have a face that we hide away forever and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone," sings Billy on the album's title track. Here, like frames from a film, are 12 sequential images from "The Stranger" cover shoot, many of them formerly unseen, each offering a different perspective on the mysteries of "The Stranger." You can also notice the red mark which designates the actual chosen cover." Really, not one Jim Flora print in the basement at the label? Maybe behind the extra cartons of Savage Garden LPs? And where the hell is the commemorative print of Eddie Murphy recording "Party All the Time"? Don Fleming smoking up during the Gumball sessions?
To me, it makes much more sense to head down to the Varvatos gallery and grab some $120 Columbia 1980's LPs to frame.
I think it's a great idea (if the NYTimes can dig back a hundred and forty years to sell imagery....).
BUT.....how many takers are they gonna get at those prices? They can probably make quality prints on high-end digital printers for a couple of dollars each, making the markup like 7,500 percent. If I had $1,500 to burn, I think i'd take a nice vacation or put it toward my mortgage.
Posted by: Dale Hazelton | May 30, 2008 at 09:52 AM
I'm surprised they can keep the Billy Joel photos in stock at that bargain price.
Posted by: will | May 30, 2008 at 11:34 AM
The "Nice Price".
Posted by: Dale Hazelton | May 31, 2008 at 09:03 AM
These objects-dart used to come w/ the music. They were called album covers.
Posted by: Don Buddin | May 31, 2008 at 07:22 PM
These objects-dart used to come w/ the music. They were called album covers.
Posted by: Don Buddin | May 31, 2008 at 07:23 PM
The "Nice Price"
Posted by: sohbet | September 01, 2008 at 12:03 PM
These objects-dart used to come w/ the music.
Posted by: sohbet | September 01, 2008 at 12:04 PM