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Artists & Labels: I'm Saying Goodbye to Buying CDs!
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xuam
Inactive User
Started Topics :
2
Posts :
53
Posted : Apr 24, 2007 05:18
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wow...maybe we need a chat line here...eheheh...
Quasga...tnx for the apologies...and I apology myself for my previous nastyness...also you PM was not so nice.
be sure that I am not the kind of person carrying resentment...
maybe if we knew eachother in personam we could understand better the reciprocal hirony...digital communication has its problems.
I understand very well your worries about artworks...and infact I still miss vynils for their big artworks..
but don't worry too much...I think that your job will find his way also in this digital madness...somehow...I wish you luck.
respect for true creativity should come always first
ciao
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BrettFromTibet
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
61
Posts :
749
Posted : Apr 24, 2007 08:05
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Quasga & Andrew:
How does digital distribution reduce temptation to copy?
With innovative (and low overhead) business models like Netflix, people are able to enjoy many more movies than ever before at a much lower cost. And the nimble companies that embraced the paradigm shift are making great money... the old fashioned video stores are suffering. It's so convenient that a significant segment of people are willing to pay a little to rent movies and not even go through the hassle of long torrent downloads, burning their own DVDs, and risking lawsuits.
Yes there are hardcore pirates but they're not your customers anyway. You want encourage the quasi-honest people to buy more chillout, more frequently. And make it very easy and painless (no-DRM!!!) for them to do this.
Here is a fact: Obtaining chillout music on CD is considered to be extremely difficult / inconvenient by most party people in my country.
People hear the new Adham Shaikh CD... and they ask me "How can I get this?" I explain they have to order it from a private shop in Canada and pay international shipping - because it's not sold in our country. They say "Gosh, well..can I just make a copy of yours?"...and I say "grrr... no, because it's a rare CD and the artist doesn't sell many copies. It's not like mainstream music" and people think I'm a mean and weird... and they are baffled at why they can't just buy it and get instant gratification.
I wish people could just download it in a variety of formats, with a variety of payment options, at a price that made people say... "Wow, that's a really fair deal... actually, I think I'm gonna buy three albums instead of just one."
Then everybody wins! I am sure that the labels can make MORE money by cutting their COSTS (CD printing, pressing, airmail) and PRICING enough to tempt people's honest side and siphon serious traffic back from the burners and torrents.
Be focused on the customer. Be generous. Be innovative.
Let's make (more) high quality chillout available to more people than have ever been able to buy and enjoy it before!
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andrew interchill
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
26
Posts :
435
Posted : Apr 24, 2007 22:24
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Brett...
Re: Here is a fact: Obtaining chillout music on CD is considered to be extremely difficult / inconvenient by most party people in my country.
I would add that distributing chillout music in the states is a real nightmare too. That is why we licensed so many tunes to system.
your friends can buy adham's releases from backroads, which is in USA. His albums Fusion and Essence are up on itunes, emusic [which is great btw] and other services [through interchill's digital deal with ioda]
i think collectivity will be available soon too - and adham will be running his own digital account through ioda.
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one thing i'd like to point out is that IODA distributes all our catalogue wherever they can - so you get different business models/ file types and pricing structures. [drm, no drm, subscription, hi quality wav, mp3, streaming, podcasts, ringtones etc etc]
I don't get involved in that - basically that is their business and i leave them to it. It is axiomatic that the more visible your digital release then the more sales it will make.
and to reply to Quasga - yes i agree that digital distro does not really do enough justice to album art. perhaps labels and artists will need to try and attract interested people to their own websites to provide print res scans and other added value visual treatments.
The US is primarily a digital / mail order and licensing territory... regular cd distro is very challenging and due to wholesale prices of 6.5US a cd and a very weak dollar most european exporters have found it almost impossible to build any fruitful long term distro pipes from Europe to US.
this is exacerbated by the fact that US is also the most forward looking market in terms of digital and that this added with p2p and copying has made it very hard for retail to survive.
for club culture related music there is more viability, but each year another large distributor goes under leaving trails of debt.
waveform got burnt badly when studio distribution went down.
there are significant investments required and some scary inherent risks in trying to do major cd distro in USA.
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Quasga
Inactive User
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
498
Posted : Apr 24, 2007 23:06
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Quote:
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On 2007-04-24 22:24, andrew interchill wrote:
and to reply to Quasga - yes i agree that digital distro does not really do enough justice to album art. perhaps labels and artists will need to try and attract interested people to their own websites to provide print res scans and other added value visual treatments.
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Please excuse my vagueness... I wasn't referring to quality as much as wondering if there will even be a need for it in the not-so-far off future?? It seems people are caring less about the "multimedia" aspect of packaging, and more concerned about just having the latest music as *fast* as humanly possible, until they get hungry again in a few hours.
I can think of one example where Damion @ psyreviews reviewed an album that he obviously didn't have the cover art to becuase he reviewed the album with an entirely wrong title. Probably because he didn't have a real CD/digipak, but instead had a *illegal download* or mislabeled copy from somewhere. If he would have had the real CD/digipak, he would have been able to identify the correct title from the packaging.
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Quasga
Inactive User
Started Topics :
12
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498
Posted : Apr 25, 2007 00:45
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But this is coming from a guy who get's *really* annoyed when I ask a DJ or "today's trancer/chiller" what a certain track is TITLED and all they can tell me is a track number(truly lame). 
I guess that is a hopeful aspect of the digital revolution.... *everyone* will be using their computers with IDENTIFIED files when playing sets(hopefully) so when I ask, they may not know from memory (truly sad), but can quickly look on their computer screen and tell me.
And let's not even get started on the ignorance of incorrect CDDB entries by the masses....
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The Chilling Spirit
Started Topics :
1
Posts :
332
Posted : Apr 25, 2007 11:44
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Talking about mistagged/untagged files: That is a thing artists and labels really need to learn... Sure it is a bit more work but imagine that dude from Fantastian who accidentaly finds sample021.mp3, love it, wants to buy the cd but has no idea what it is. Same applies to livesets/mixsets. Add your tags, add your website, add the original url of the file.
 http://enjoys.it |
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Quasga
Inactive User
Started Topics :
12
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498
Posted : Apr 25, 2007 23:48
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Quote:
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On 2007-04-25 11:44, The Chilling Spirit wrote:
Talking about mistagged/untagged files: That is a thing artists and labels really need to learn... Sure it is a bit more work but imagine that dude from Fantastian who accidentaly finds sample021.mp3, love it, wants to buy the cd but has no idea what it is. Same applies to livesets/mixsets. Add your tags, add your website, add the original url of the file.
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w3rd.
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elektric sheep
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
26
Posts :
315
Posted : Apr 27, 2007 09:18
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Other Music in NYC have just gone digital (only in US 4 now)...its been a long time in the making and below is a snippet from their newsletter...
'It’s been quite a week for Other Music and our new mp3 download shop . In fact, the outpouring of love you showed us when we announced on Monday that the site had finally launched nearly shut us down! But we’re surely not about to start complaining about too much business. We’ve spent a few long nights troubleshooting and we’re happy to report that the site is running faster and smoother, we’re adding hundreds of new titles and scores of new labels weekly and we’re already working on some cool tweaks to make the site work even better. We are also very appreciative for all of the feedback and suggestions that you've sent in. Please continue sending your comments to feedback@othermusic.com . Most importantly, we want to say THANK YOU for the support and enthusiasm."
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bluespectralmonkey
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
80
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1336
Posted : May 4, 2007 03:43
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maux
Mauxuam
Started Topics :
28
Posts :
546
Posted : May 4, 2007 15:45
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McKennaDMT
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
457
Posted : May 15, 2007 03:31
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I'll admit straight up that I download music. But I also purchase music as well. But I justify my downloading of music by the free word-of-mouth promotion that I do as well.
Quasga, I have purchased your Efflorescence album as well as your recently released EP on FakeScience, but I'll admit I did not purchase Emotivision. But, I have made up for it by letting people listen to the tracks and have them falling in love with it and actually ordering it. So guess what, I'm doing free promotion for ya and I don't mind at all.
Like one of the other posters said, ordering albums is a pain in the ass (especially living in the US), that not only takes forever, but is cost prohibitive too and being a returning college student, I have to budget wisely.
That's why I was shocked and IMPRESSED with what Fakescience.com is doing. Full albums with artwork for $5.00? I purchased immediately. Paying $15 for a CD plus, shipping and handling, sorry man, can't do it
As an artist, where do you draw the line of being paid for the work you do and knowing that many many people are listening to your work? Which would you rather have? |
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yeti
Started Topics :
4
Posts :
208
Posted : May 19, 2007 00:55
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Personally, I prefer some physical proof of the music I am buying. Call me old fashion, but I LOVE my vinyls and CD's and wouldn't give it up for anything in the world. So if I can get a hold of the CD (or vinyl), I would be more than happy to cash in some extra money to get a "hard copy", rather than have it as a digital copy, which basically only is 1's and 0's :-/
Its all a matter of taste, but I think there is still something special about holding your newly purchased cd/vinyl in your hands, watching the beautiful artwork on the cover, while listening to the tunes on your stereo.
Though I have bought one digital release, Aes Dana - Manifold, through beatport.com in wave format, which went smoothly. But I was "forced" to buy it as a digital copy, for one thing because I LOVE Aes dana's music, and because its was one of many, "only e-releases" from ultimae.com
So the conclusion is, I hope that labels aren't totally abandoning physical copies in the nearest future!
cheers
- The yeti loves to drink shnaps too, so he's like a real shaman... he, uhm, uh, if you want to contact him, you have to put some alcoholic offerings in front of the forest. |
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Dopese
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
29
Posts :
298
Posted : May 19, 2007 10:01
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Quote:
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On 2007-05-19 00:55, yeti wrote:
Its all a matter of taste, but I think there is still something special about holding your newly purchased cd/vinyl in your hands, watching the beautiful artwork on the cover, while listening to the tunes on your stereo.
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I agree with that. A digital download never would satisfy me.
http://my.opera.com/Dopese/ |
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exotic
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
200
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5057
Posted : May 22, 2007 16:39
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Quote:
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On 2007-04-23 06:47, maer wrote:
i think that we, the people who work and live largely online (forums, online communities, email lists, etc) tend to forget that the largest part of the music buying public isn't as engaged with online music distro and formats. it's sad, but over 10% of the US music market still purchases their tunes from Wal-Mart stores. that represents the largest single retailer of music here. MP3, FLAC, iTunes, eMusic, Beatport, etc may be huge in our minds, but for most of the music buying public - online digital sales represents a small amount of the market.
it's paramount for labels (and artists) to engage their market as widely as possible.
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Good point. We have an impression that the electronic music market is mainly online but i can see the future heading the retail way. it 's good to have online access to music but the major chunk of the buying goes on in music stores out there. Labels should focus more on reducing the prices of cd's getting their music out there thus ensuring maximum saleability of their cd's which will maintain steady flow to keep the artists satisfied as well. and dont tell us there isnt a demand for such music  advertising will you get you there.
The structure of marketing is quite lopsided as of now and deserves a quick change if the psy-trance music industry is to evolve to the next level.
missing plug-in |
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andrew interchill
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
26
Posts :
435
Posted : May 22, 2007 22:30
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Labels very rarely set the price to retail - usually that is the distributor
i don't think interchill could afford to supply walmart - that whole model is based around very high volumes with very slim profit per cd.
most retail suffers from problems related to maintaining inventory and paying their overheads - which is why we see such huge markups.
still - nothing beats knowing a store that brings you the best - anyone here used to shop at fatcat in London? |
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