Early music label shuts down its website

press statement:

The announcement on 3 March that the Tallis Scholars’ record label, Gimell, will stop selling Downloads and CDs from its website has resulted in a huge boost in sales. Since making the announcement and launching an End-of-Life promotion the website has been flooded with orders. Sales since 3 March now exceed total sales for the whole of the previous year!

Launched in 2007 the Gimell website was only the second in the world to sell high resolution downloads and in 2008 it was the first to sell FLAC Surround Sound Downloads. The venture proved highly successful but times move on and many other stores now have similar offerings. Gimell’s technology partner recently announced  that it could no longer maintain the website and after careful consideration Gimell decided to launch a new website that will not sell Downloads and CDs.

Steve Smith, Gimell’s managing director, said:

“We were very disappointed to have to close our online store, especially as it was just a few months from celebrating its tenth birthday, but the marketplace has changed significantly in 10 years and we felt we could not justify the cost of building a new dedicated store just for our own recordings. Ironically, given the extraordinary boost in sales since making our announcement, I suspect our accountant will say we should now build a new store and then announce another End-of-Life Sale.”

The Tallis Scholars’ catalogue currently features 56 original albums of which 20 have been recorded in high resolution. The first Gimell recording, made in 1980, featured Allegri’s Miserere and Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli and was recently featured  in a list of the 50 Greatest Classical Recordings of all time by BBC Music Magazine. In 1987 The Tallis Scholars CD of two masses by Josquin was the first album by an independent label to win the Gramophone Record of the Year Award. They made their first high resolution recording in 1993 of which three have been nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2013 their recording of John Taverner’s Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas enjoyed  six weeks at number one in the UK Specialist Classical Chart.