$789 is the sticker price for the upcoming Yo-Yo Ma collection, “30 Years Outside the Box.” The collection stands out against other classical sets since the musician is still living and a lot of his CDs are still available—okay, not in their remastered form, but still… The set does include some 90 CDs. Preorder now from Ma’s website and, if you’re one of the first two hundred buyers, you can also score a personalized note and signed photograph of everyone’s favorite cellist (he’s played for presidents, real and fictional, for high-profile funerals, and just last Friday he performed for the world leaders at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh). One hundred people have already plunked down the money for his collection.As Wakin points out in his article, the album itself is dying in an age when people download only their favorite songs. So why are box sets booming?
Box sets are being marketed to and bought largely by older people who have the funds and attention spans for such investments. A box set is something material, a tangible representation of memories one can hold on to. Even in the digital age “the impulse to have and to hold an object, as well as to collect it, remains,” writes Wakin. A lot of us have probably seen those commercials on TV for greatest hits albums, their message being: “Buy the best of the 60’s, the 70’s, the 80’s, the 90’s…buy back your youth.”
Music can mean a lot. We all have soundtracks to our lives. If you had the money, and the time, would you buy every work by your favorite composer, band, singer? Maybe you would. Until then, box sets like the new Ma collection perhaps belong in a few private homes and in libraries, so the masses can get a taste of his genius.
photo courtesy yo-yoma.com
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