Actually that 7" wasn't THAT expensive. It was about the price of a import
12". That may seem like a lot for a 7", but the costs of putting out a 7"
aren't that much less than a 12" (which is about as much as a full length
CD). Pricing on those kinds of things aren't dictated by the cost of
manufacture, but by what the market will bear. When the release is very
limited (like that 7" was) the market tends to bear quite a bit. But why did
they charge so much? Probably because they have recording costs, need to
eat, rent to pay, a new keyboard to buy, etc.
No one is making money of paid digital downloads so RIGHT NOW putting that
out as a download would not have made them as much money as the 7" did.
Besides that many/most of the people in this scene/business still want
something concrete like a record or a CD when they put something out.
Deejays want that too. Stores need that. They're all inter-connected. I get
the feeling that implicit in this conversation is that anybody trying to
make a living by selling this music is a bad guy and that if only we could
get rid of the "greedy" labels/distributors/record stores we'd be all better
off. That's bull. Without seeming too damn immodest we do more than move
records from point a to point b. Good labels, distributors and stores (along
with the help of the press, radio and deejays) help sort the good from the
bad, highlight that which might fall by the wayside and champion the stars
of tommorrow. You want to see the alternative? Go wade through the 8
billion, gazillion free mp3s out there...alone.
How about some of the people on this list who own record labels or record
stores expressing their opinion. Does it bother you how guiltlessly people
seem to talk about copying or downloading music they didn't pay for? How
about the musicians out there (esp. those that make a living from it--which
is not a diss on any hobbyists, but the concerns of one trying to live off
their music is different from someone who isn't)?
Dirk van den Heuvel (dirkv@groovedis.com)
Groove Distribution
http://www.groovedis.com
Your Guide To The Underground
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Oldmeadow [mailto:soldmeadow@bigpond.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2000 6:40 PM
To: acid-jazz@ucsd.edu
Subject: Singles Market (was Re: Nappies)
----- Original Message -----
From: Dirk van den Heuvel <dirkv@groovedis.com>
> Rest assured the singles market is not dead, it's just underground and
under
> siege. Any one who loves underground music should encourage every one they
> know to go out and BUY music. We all need people to buy music or the
> musicians/labels making the music won't be able to keep making it. And the
> small labels get hit the hardest as they have the smallest sales to begin
> with.
>
I think people would go on making music if nobody bought it. Hopefully
there are musicians that make music because they enjoy doing it, not to make
a buck. The thing that takes money is running labels, paying taxes,
manufacturing records/CDs and distributing them.
Take the instance of that Lightning Head single that Groovedis was selling
for about $8US. That seems crazy to me for a 7 inch. Most of the money is
being wasted on manufacturing it and then shipping it. In contrast it could
be sold as an MP3 at emusic for 99 cents, infinitely more people could enjoy
it and the artist would probably still get paid the same (if not more).
Steve
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Apr 27 2000 - 03:43:52 MET DST