RE: Singles Market (was Re: Nappies), some labels are greedy

From: Dirk van den Heuvel (dirkv@groovedis.com)
Date: Thu Apr 27 2000 - 18:22:20 MET DST

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    I just wanted to point out one thing about the proliferation of singles--AND
    IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH NAPSTER OR FREE MUSIC--and that is that some
    deejays insist these days on pressings with only 1 or 2 (max) a side. Jungle
    deejays especially. You show a drum & bass deejay a single (or even a
    double) LP with 5 tracks a side and they'll laugh in your face. Not loud
    enuf. This has led both to the 5-6 LP sets (See Krust, Peshay, Bad Company,
    LE) and the multiple 12"s with one or two tracks a side. For things like
    Bjork I'm sure there's a certain greediness in the sense of getting you to
    buy as many records as possible.. Collectiblility, etc. There definitely
    does seem to be a lot more releases put out as two seperate 12" singles
    these days, but not so many 3+ single sets. Just FYI.

    Dirk van den Heuvel (dirkv@groovedis.com)
    Groove Distribution
    http://www.groovedis.com
    Your Guide To The Underground

    -----Original Message-----
    From: sobrown@teknorapex.com [mailto:sobrown@teknorapex.com]
    Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2000 8:16 AM
    To: acid-jazz@ucsd.edu
    Subject: Re: Singles Market (was Re: Nappies), some labels are greedy

    I agree with the general sentiment that downloading entire albums of
    anything that isn't out-of-print is not ethical or fair to the artists and
    distributors. However, I think there is a backlash against apparent cases
    of greed in the music business. At least for me there is a lot of
    resentment at the number of groups that have taken the CDSingle/12" format
    to new lows... I think Bjork was one of the first artists to play this
    game, opting to spread a single over anywhere from 2-6 records. It used to
    be that a CDsingle or 12" release was a CD or vinyl with 4-8 mixes, in
    other words an EP with substantial amount of material on it. I used to love
    picking up Depeche Mode CD singles because I always knew I would get a
    variety of mixes. But then people got greedy and started putting spreading
    6 mixes over three CDs and charging 9.99 or 10.99 a pop.(Bjork, Bjork,
    Bjork!!!).. so if you want to get all the mixes of a song you may spend as
    much as 35-40 dollars. I know the price tag that remixers get from artists
    has gone up, but I think they are cutting their own throats because it's
    just too much.

         Even artists are doing the same thing. Take Squarepusher - Selection
    Sixteen for instance, or the new Palmskin Production CD. Both productions
    feature a few well thought-out songs and a ton of filler or short blurbs
    that aren't even songs. They end up being able to stretch the material of
    an EP out in order to charge a full length album price. I think they would
    be better off to release an EP or just take the time to write enough to
    give us 9-10 songs or whatever, but not come at us with this deception of
    getting an album's worth when we really aren't. Is this the label or the
    artist that perpetuates this deception?

    I don't mind paying for music, because I think the artists and distributors
    deserve to be paid for their creations. But please, no more CD-Single Part
    1of 3!!!

    Steve Brown
    Pawtucket, RI



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