MFSL

["B.W. Radley" <bwradley@earthlink.net>]

Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 07:51:21 EST
From: KGT2594@aol.com
Subject: MFSL

According to the Associated Press, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs has gone out
of business.  Wonder how that'll affect prices?

ChicoTodd
 ------------------------------
Todd (as well as anyone else who is interested):

Here is the story that was carried in the Santa Rosa (California) Press
Democrat, a newspaper that had the questionable taste of putting my face on
the front page once!

BW Radley
bwradley@earthlink.net

Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs goes silent

Nov. 25, 1999

By BOB NORBERG
Press Democrat Staff Writer

Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs of Sebastopol has gone out of business after more
than two decades of reissuing the classic music of some of the world's most
revered musicians, from the Beatles to Frank Sinatra.

"It was sad to shut the doors,'' said Jim Benz, executive vice president.
"Everything has a beginning and an end and unfortunately Friday was the end
for Mobile Fidelity.''  The company was a victim of a change in the music
industry, now dominated by a handful of major distribution companies, and
the distribution of music on the Internet, Benz said. And the end came even
as the company's products, which appealed to music lovers and audiophiles,
were becoming collectors items themselves, selling for several times their
original release price.

"They will be missed,'' said Gabe Meline, who runs the Last Record Store's
vinyl record outlet in Santa Rosa. "They were definitely the most popular.
They command the highest prices on Internet auctions.''

Mobile Fidelity was started 22 years ago by two record lovers, one from
Squaw Valley and the other in Spokane, Wash., who were soon joined by Herb
Belkin, who became company president until he retired five years ago.  The
company started in Southern California, was moved to Petaluma in 1985 and to
Sebastopol in 1991, where it took space in a Morris Street building and
pressed its own vinyl records before moving completely to CDs and, just
recently, DVDs.  They are one of a number of companies that reissue music,
such as Classic Music, Simply Vinyl and Capitol EMI, and catered to
audiophiles. But Mobile Fidelity was the largest, with sales of $2.5 million
to $3 million a year, officials said.

Belkin said in those two decades, the industry changed drastically. Mobile
Fidelity at first sold directly to record shops, but distribution in the
past few years was taken over by music distributing companies.  But even
those distribution companies fell on hard times.  Benz said, however, as the
music industry consolidated, large companies were forming to handle
distribution. Within the last five years, however, some of those companies
went bankrupt and owed Mobile Fidelity money, in chunks of $10,000 to
$100,000, until Mobile Fidelity could no longer absorb the losses, Benz
said.

Officers of the corporation, which is owned by the employees, filed in U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in Santa Rosa on Tuesday for protection from creditors
under Chapter 7, which allows for liquidation.  Benz said the decision to
file was made by the board of directors. The papers were signed by Benz and
Jane Kneer, vice president of operations. Lori Beaudoin of Sebastopol was
president until resigning recently.  According to the filing, the company's
assets of between $500,000 and $1 million are about equal to its debts.
Among the debtors are the music companies representing Neil Young, Guns N'
Roses and Paul Simon.

The company has made reissues of music from Nirvana, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis
Armstrong, the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and
Pink Floyd.  The reissued records and CDs were sold at a premium, for about
$30, approximately twice the price of the original records, but some of the
reissues are now on the collectors' market going for much more.  Benz said
some of the 20-year-old reissues are selling for $100 to $200, while Meline
said some of the records are being sold in Internet auctions for $150.

The official end for Mobile Fidelity came Friday, when the company stopped
doing business and its eight employees were laid off.  "We were going great
guns,'' Benz said. "It's sad it has to end this way.''