Selling Tapes

In the 1950s, Leo Mercier was the person responsible for sales and distribution of the "Message" through sales of William Branham's recordings on cassette tapes.  Sermons sold for $4.00, which was unusually high compared to other forms of entertainment.  Vinyl records of music, for example, sold for between $0.85 and $1.25

The ’50s were tough times but the people were resilient. One way that the people of that decade would blow off steam is through music. It was quite common to see people queueing up to purchase new records. Records and pieces of vinyl cost a mere $0.85 for older records and the latest releases were only $1.25.[1]

Reel-to-reel magnetic tape was growing increasingly popular in the 1950s, due to the inexpensive production and widespread availability to average consumers.[2]  A five-inch reel of 900 feet of magentic tape could hold 90 minutes of audio.[3] The average consumer could purchase double that for less than six dollars a reel,[4] and those who purchased in bulk for a fraction of that cost.  Single-track magnetic tape used for mono recordings such as speeches or music recorded before stereo was less expensive than multi-track stereo.  Stereo magnetic tape required one track for the left channel and one track for the right channel, which was slightly more expensive to produce.

Recording artists who offered their recordings in high-fidelity stereo sound had a wide range of prices depending upon their popularity.  Even some of the more popular artists offered their recordings cheaper than William Branham's recording business.  Duke Ellington recordings, for example, were sold at $3.50 or less in 1956,[5] while that same year Leo Mercier offered Branham recordings for $0.50 more.[6]