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White Collar Criminals

THIS IS WHY HAVING DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL RELEASE DATES IS COMPLETELY FUCKTARDED IN THE YEAR 2011

 Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 at 2:30pm by

broken record

Dear record labels,

Please read this. All of it. Then kindly quit complaining about sagging revenues and scapegoating music piracy. You’re leaving money on the table.

Love,
Vince Neilstein

From AVC via The Guardian, written by Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist who spends upwards of $60 per month – and by his estimate around $2,000 annually – on music and music subscriptions:

I like to buy music. I buy it from emusic (where I pay $23/month for use it or lose it credits for music downloads), Amazon, and when in a pinch, iTunes. I also have two Rhapsody music subscriptions that cost an additional $20/month. My kids also regularly spend money on iTunes for music (often for tracks we already own somewhere else in the house). I suspect between all of this, our family spends well over $1000/year on mp3s, probably closer to $2000/year.

And yet, today I find myself pirating an album on the Internet. I thought I’d outline how this happened to showcase what a fucked up system we have for content sales on the web.

Last week, I saw a tweet from my friend Anthony:

Streets tweet
I’m a huge fan of Mike Skinner/The Streets so that was an instant click. It turns out The Streets had uploaded their new record, Computers and Blues, to Soundcloud and the Hype Machine was featuring it. I gave it a listen and was smitten. I tweeted it out myself.

Then I searched the Internet for the record. It was not even listed in iTunes or emusic. It was listed on Amazon US as an import that would be available on Feb 15th, but only in CD form. I’m not buying plastic just to rip the files and throw it out. Seeing as it was an import, I searched Amazon UK. And there I found the record in mp3 form for 4 pounds. It was going to be released on Feb 4th. I made a mental note to come back and get it when it was released.

I got around to doing that today. I clicked on “buy with one click” and was greeted with this nonsense (click on the image if you want to read it).

Restrictions
So then I went to find a VPN or proxy service that would let me grab a UK IP address so I could buy the record. That was an exercise in frustration. All I could find was monthly or daily services that were 2-3x the cost of the record. I could not find a free service that would let me change my IP address for a few minutes so I could download the file. As much as I wanted to pay the 4 pounds and pay for the record, I wasn’t going to lay out $10 or more to do that.

So reluctantly, I went to a bit torrent search. I found plenty of torrents for the record and quickly had the record in mp3 form. That took less than a minute compared to the 20+ minutes I wasted trying pretty hard to buy the record legally.

This is fucked up. I want to pay for music. I value the content. But selling it to some people in some countries and not selling it to others is messed up. And selling it in CD only format is messed up. And posting the entire record on the web for streaming without making the content available for purchase is messed up.

I don’t know whose idea this is of the way to market a record but I’m hoping they read this and never do this to a fan again. Fans love music. They want to support the musicians and they want to pay for music. But if you put enough hurdles in front of them, they will become pirates. As I did this morning.

When The Streets and their record label choose to make the Computer and Blues mp3s available for purchase in the US, I will go buy the record legally. Until then, I’m a pirate.

Look; I get it. I get that the idea of different labels — or different arms of the same label — promoting a record in their home territory as opposed to the entire world is advantageous because everyone is best connected and best suited to market a record in the country in which they live. I get it; this makes sense. What does not make sense is staggering release dates by weeks, months or more. This tactic no longer makes sense when the Internet allows people to discover new music from other countries with the click of a mouse, and CERTAINLY doesn’t make sense when folks will just resort to piracy if a paid option isn’t available or easily discoverable.

A huge amount of money is being left on the table by record labels’ insistence of sticking to marketing tactics of the 1990s. Come on, people…. take the time to get it together by coordinating release dates. Especially for bigger labels like Century, Metal Blade, Roadrunner etc that have offices in multiple territories throughout the world, there is absolutely no excuse. Even the smaller labels; any dumb schmuck with a debit card can sign up for a TuneCore account and have an album for sale digitally on dozens of platforms throughout the entire world in a matter of days, and any asshole off the street can hire a publicist capable of sending emails to people in other countries. The Internet is international; remember?

So kindly stop complaining about sagging profits and scapegoating music piracy when one very low-hanging piece of fruit is right there for the picking.

-VN

Thanks: Frank Godla

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kasper-Maigaard/1027001938 Kasper Maigaard

    True. I was absolutely shocked when, just a few weeks back, you guys announced that Kvelertak’s s/t album finally would get released in the US. What was the gap? It got released in over here on June 21st, so more than half a year. Completely ridiculous.

    • twistedfreak

      Exactly, It’s bullshit. Good read.

    • Stu

      Because they didn’t have a label here.

      • Isaac

        With the advent of Bandcamp, nobody has an excuse to not have their music available at the very least digitally anymore.

        • Stu

          You realize bands sometimes want to tour in different countries, right? That requires some sort of support system in more cases than not. It’d be easier enough to get your stuff distributed digitally worldwide through itunes, but that’s not the point.

      • Cladgemeister

        *woosh*

    • BigDan

      I’ll give Kvelertak a pass. It’s sung all in Norwegian and they had no reason to think anyone over here would give a crap when it first dropped.

      • Gageless

        Then you’d be a fool for it was one of the releases of 2010.
        But then, anyone who needs their music screamed in indecipherable English as opposed to indecipherable Norwegian is obviously a brat. The idea that people from non-English-speaking nations must convert their art to YOUR language to appease a few fat americans is ludicrous.

        • Stu

          Foreign language albums don’t sell well, sorry dude. BigDan is completely correct, as well. The record and band will suffer due to the Norwegian lyrics, as well.

        • Stu

          How do albums in French sell in your country? How about in Spanish?

    • WowWee!

      I had to buy an CD import.

  • wv

    whats more annoying to me is releasing diffrent versions of albums in diffrent parts of the world. for instance, a japan or europe only release will get bonus tracks, while us release dosent. release the album the same every wheres.

    • Metalguy

      Apparently Japan gets all the bonus tracks beacuse they charge more for music, and want to give customers a reason to pay. But it is ridiculous. Chimaira, for example, have an entire albums worth of bonus tracks on special editons and compilations

    • Stu

      You’re missing the entire point of bonus tracks

      • Rik

        Yes, bonus tracks are meant to be exactly that, a bonus. But I still think it should be available to everyone regardless of where they live, on a “special edition” of the album. Besides, often they are tracks recorded with the rest of the album, in many cases more than worthy of being on the album, so they may as well be considered an album track. A bonus to me would be a remix or live recording, maybe a cover song or something like that. Because it really puts me off buying an album when I know I could easily download it, with more tracks, for free.

        • Stu

          You can get them as imports, as I have for bands I’ve liked over the past 20 years. And now, it’s really easy to find them on the web.

          • key

            I think what he’s complaining about is having to buy the same album more than once if he wants to hear the bonus tracks, so buying an import won’t help because US have bonus tracks too.

          • Stu

            Key- I understand that’s a pain in the ass, but, like I said, you can usually find the tracks online. It’s really just more whining.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sam-Wilson/39108627 Sam Wilson

      I totally agree with you. When I buy an album, I want to buy ALL of the album, with ALL of the songs. I dont give a shit if the “bonus” track is live, a remix, a cover tune, the worst song they’ve ever recorded, or better than the rest of the album. I fucking want all of the damn tracks. AND, I don’t want to have to pay $30+ for a Japanese import of an album to get one damn track, when the rest of the album, minus the “bonus” track, is fucking $12 in the states. Not to mention waiting however long for the damn CD to come in the mail (I try to avoid digital purchases as much as I can, you can resell a CD, or it can go out of print and be worth alot of money, you can’t do that with a digital album)

      In reference to some of the other comments on this post, I’ve talked to several people in the music business previously about all the damn Japanese bonus tracks (I dont care what anyone says, the U.S. DOES get bonus tracks, but I can only think of one album that I own which was a U.S. bonus track exclusive, which was Children Of Bodom’s Are You Dead Yet) Anywho, got sidetracked there. Fucking Japan gets all the damn bonus tracks because their record labels have alot of push. From what I’ve been told, music sales are very high in Japan, and the labels basically demand that you include bonus tracks or they wont pick up your album. Since Japan is a big market, and second only to the U.S., not having your album out in Japan is a really bad idea.

      • Stu

        That’s not exactly accurate. It’s to combat imports from the US. Without a bonus, they’ll just buy imports, thus there’s no reason to be released on a Japanese label, thus, band loses support they’d get to tour there.

      • bombs away

        The average Japanese album costs around USD$30. We’re talking J-pop here. Some foreign metal albums cost up to $40. I’ve seen singles with three tracks go for $15. That’s how the Japanese market looks like, and from what I know, it’s really singles dominated. A single can move up to millions but the said album single comes from will sometimes move less than half that amount.
        Like Stu said says, if there are not extra incentives for listeners the album loses out to imports and without sales no one will distribute it. And we all know how important it is for bands to be big in Japan. It’s their only place to tour when they hit 60 years of age.

  • Jimmy

    Iphider is free and you can change your ip to another country…just saying..

    • shit sandwich

      fuck off with that scam

  • Sacajawea

    Why is a tangible copy of something you wish to buy such a bad thing to some people? Hard copies of albums is the only way for me to go. Maybe I’m turning into an old man (is 24 old?) but I just can’t find a reason to spend money on something that I do not actually seem to own.

    Now for an old man rant:
    I won a free download card from Obscura last year. I visited the site, entered the download code, and the download was corrupted 90% through the download. The code was invalid after that. If I had spent money on that shit I would have been furious. Also, I have had friends with thousands of dollars of legally downloaded mp3s on their computers. Then the computer crashes and it’s all lost. If they had the albums in CD form then they would still own the music.

    I really would like someone who actually buys mp3s regularly to answer the question of why they make the decision to buy mp3s over cds. I’m not looking for a fight, I’m just curious because I haven’t found an upside to it and maybe one of the young’uns can explain things to someone who apparently is not up with the times.

    • AetherJake

      less clutter. i’m a cd guy myself, but having a little ipod with all of your music on it is more convenient

    • Aaron R A

      Up until about three years ago, I was completely with you on this. Then, I decided to buy an album on iTunes that I just couldn’t find a physical copy of. And it was easy. And convenient. And I didn’t have to drive all over town to find whatever ridiculous, obscure album I was looking for that day. And nearly everything cost $9.99 (as I still only buy full albums). To me, it’s just so much simpler digitally, and, if anything, I spend more money on music. Last year alone I know I bought well over 100 albums on iTunes, not to mention quite a few from Amazon. As far as the security thing goes, I have an external hard drive that I back all of my music up on, as well as the fact that you can transfer iTunes purchased material on your iPod back onto your computer, should it crash, which happened to me about a year ago.

    • matty2fatty

      CD’s are a pain in the ass, pure and simple. I’ve moved 4 times in the last 4 years, and moving my cd collection is a pain in the ass. So, the last time I moved, after packing up my hundreds of cds into boxes, wrapping up my sound system, etc, I got into my new apartment and decided I couldn’t be bothered anymore. I left the cds in the boxes and my stereo in my closet. I now have a much more simple system where I connect a speaker setup to my laptop and play all of my music off of there.

      So: convenience. For the record, I’m 27.

      • Brendan

        But with a good band they are putting thought into the artwork and etc that you get with the cd and that all adds to the album as a whole; so I figure that, once again with good bands, it’s all there for a reason and to neglect the art would be to neglect part of the album.

      • http://jeckenrode@sbcglobal.net Motorvate

        Bingo. I’m 44, and I have amassed a huge collection of cd’s over the years. At one point, I had to have been holding on to about 5,000 cd’s. Being military, it became a hassle to inventory my music every time I moved. With the advent of the mp3 age, I ripped everything into my hard drive and started dumping cd’s. It’s just sooo much easier to download and store on a hard drive. I’m hanging onto about a 1,000 right now that have sentimental value, but I honestly couldn’t tell you the last cd I bought. Wait…yes I can. It was the Chimaira live cd – and I only bought that for the dvd. In fact, that’s about the only reason I’ll buy a physical cd anymore.

        If I love a band and want to give them my support, I go to their live shows and buy a shitload of t-shirts. I’m loading up at the D.R.I/Death Angel show tonight.

      • James M.

        I don’t know, there’s just something I love about having a physical copy of something. I’m 16, which makes it rather weird. Can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent on ebay looking for original copies of the old Death cd’s or unremastered editions of Megadeth’s catalog….

        • fester

          mp3′s don’t sound as good, even at the highest bit rate. you listen to the music, but you don’t hear all of it. this is not up for debate.

          if you care about how your music sounds, buy records and take good care of them.

          then again, if you abandoned your stereo and now you only listen to laptop speakers, I guess you don’t care how your music sounds.

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joe-Martinez/736070913 Joe Martinez

            This is why I only download FLAC files

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shane-Tallent/100000411561578 Shane Tallent

          if you are looking for original death cds( still packaged) go to tapetown’s ebay, they are reasonably priced

    • Corpsie

      I agree with you Sacajawea. I love the whole shebang. I could care less about having to move my shit or having to inventory it or whatever. I love reading the liner notes in albums. Also who produced it. Where and when it was recorded. Who is sponsoring the band. Who drew or designed the amazing artwork. I like to read lyrics and look at band photos. Sure, I can search and look for that shit online but having the tangible product in my hand makes it more “real”. I’ve downloaded albums and wound up paying double for them just because I realized I missed having an actual product in my hand. Plus it feels weird to say something like, “Oh yeah, I have that album.” When in fact, I only had the mp3s. That’s just really lame in my opinion.

      It’s a shame Fred Wilson isn’t willing to shell out the cash for something that includes not only the music from one of his favorite bands, but also the artwork and everything else that band has put thought into in a tangible product. Especially if he’s “well to do” as a venture capitalist. Christ on a cracker, I make peanuts each year but manage to scrounge up some change from the couch to buy actual albums from my favorite bands. And yes, that makes me a way better person and a total elitist.

      • MoonSnake

        I’m right there with you dude, except I ditched CD’s and have been buying all vinyl for quite awhile. No amount of convenience compares to the richness of the sound, the art in your hands and the experience of that first spin… Also, you find new appreciation for the arrangement of an album when you actually have to get up to flip it.

        I don’t really have a problem with all the digital music, I just love vinyl and generally prefer to have a physical copy of my music. Most new vinyl now comes with a digital copy of the album anyways. Best of both worlds

        • 6810

          Totally with you. I’m all about the vinyl where it’s available at fair prices. When unavailable, I buy CD. I spend more many than I have/should on music, both new releases and dusty used (Voivod’s “Nothingface was a solid score last year) supporting labels and owners of independent stores by buying direct.

          A long time “pirate”, I bought my first mp3s off amazon (Sasquatch’s III, cos it wasn’t out on CD and I really wanted to hear it). But now it resides with a massive collection of downloaded freeloadin’ products and it has no value – at all! If I buy an LP or a CD I can sell it. Especially in the case of the former. But an mp3 is just data on a hard disk. It can be infinitely copied but has no value whatsoever.

          Mp3 purchases have their place, but as far as didgital music goes, I think I am starting to come around to the metal sucks way of thinking – streaming/cloud services. There will always be a market for physical product, but perhaps it will be more boutique and specialised. Kind of like real beer versus 3rd beer (I live in Japan where beer is taxed on malt content. There are 3rd tier products which contain little to no malt and are basically alcopops made with grain liquor, beer flavour from green peas etc and are half the price of real beer). Both will get you drunk, but one’s obviously a superior product, depending on your POV.

        • http://deathmetalbaboon.com/ byrd36

          Well, I’m 35 and prefer to have a CD. If I buy digital it’s usually because imports are so expensive. I burn all my digital music to CDs for back up copies and because playing the ipod through the car stereo isn’t fuckin’ loud enough (at least not mine). Also a friend of mine had all his music backed up to an external hard-drive and when his computer died he transfered the files to the new one only to find that about 40% were corrupted.

    • Jonathan

      I have an iPod for ease of listening, and I don’t mind buying MP3, particularly if, as in the case of AILD’s New Junk Aesthetic, it’s 6$ cheaper on iTunes and I can’t get to the store any time soon; I want the music now, and my iTunes acount has the money. So, what the hell. I can just write it to a blank CD. Don’t have to pay gas money, either.

      Though usually, I do prefer CDs. In fact, NJA was so good I almost with I /had/ bought the physical album. An album’s art/lyric booklet is always great to look at while listening to an album the first time (since metal bands are cool and still do that, unlike the rest of the CDs my friends have).

    • Adam

      +1 for buying CD’s. The artwork, liner notes, credits, thank-you’s, lyrics, layout, all that good stuff everyone else mentioned I love too. You don’t get that with mp3′s. Sure, I love having my whole collection in my pocket with me too with my Zune (yes, I’m one of the 15 people in the world who have a Zune, and I love it!), but nothing beats having a physical copy. Not to mention I always have great conversation with the guys who work at my local record store, you don’t get that buying mp3′s.

      I don’t have the time or money at the moment, but one day I’d like to get into vinyl and start a collection, and see what I’ve been missing!

  • reznik

    One time i had to wait for six months for an artist to bring out there album on itunes and amazon but it was out on usa and european itunes, amazon stores before hand. and im in the uk

  • Chip Northcutt

    This is a great post. Record companies have been their worst enemies for decades and in the end the musicians don’t get paid. It is time to pay the publicist and otherwise be your own record company. Self releasing is now something anyone can do if they care to do the work. You can always license it if you get a record company offer that you like.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Manka/100000083183511 Tony Manka

    The whole subject or downloading and/or buying music is very much in a grey area. how do you buy something that doesn’t physically exist? on top of that how can people sell something that costs little to no money to copy? When you buy a CD isn’t most of the cost from producing a container for this music? It’s already been proven we don’t need CDs as a container anymore. Old people can continue to be old people if they like but at that point you might as well stick to vinyl. CDs are a horrible way to bring music to the masses.
    the sooner people accept that music is a free commodity the sooner we can get to evolving the music industry into something truly great.

    • TonyT

      Excellent post, I wish more people would think this way. So many people I know look down on me in a way because I’m a “pirate”. They need to understand that music is not a commodity, its an art form. When you mix art with money and business, it dilutes the quality of the final product.
      There are other ways to support artists than paying $10 to store a digital copy of their music on your computer. In fact I’m willing to bet I support artists by going to shows, buying shirts, etc. much more than the average pirate-accusing douche does.

      • ACoffinShip

        While I would be a hypocrite to denounce piracy in any form, I believe that this is largely factually incorrect. Art and profit have been entangled pretty much as far back as profit has existed. The painting of the Sistine Chapel was commissioned and is considered one of Michelangelo’s crowning achievements, for example. Art was surely mixed with business and it’s hard to argue that the final product was diluted.

        The rest of your argument I understand, just a minor quibble.

        • TonyT

          Good point. I suppose the difference I see with record labels though is that alot of times they take away from the artistic freedoms and creativity of the artists themselves. I’m just hoping for a perfect world where artists are self-sufficient in the production and promotion of their music and don’t have to rely on shitty record labels that force them to make radio singles or go down paths they don’t want to.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jamie-McCleave/100000341190010 Jamie McCleave

      You’re logic behind this is flawed at best. Compact Disc production is a very simple, cheap process, as is producing the booklets. When you are paying 10 dollars for a CD, you aren’t paying for the packaging, as that can be produced with pocket change. Bands sign with record labels so that they can be payed for the music that THEY make. Music is not free and should not be, unless the artists chooses to make something available for free. The fact is, they put countless hours into making a good album, and you are basically giving them the finger by downloading it for free. People need to make money. People need to be payed for their work. Why should someone who puts all of their heart and soul into making music and putting out albums of quality material have to worry about whether or not they’ll be able to afford a hotel room for the next month? If someone works at a bakery, puts hard work into baking the bread, do you think you should be able to eat the bread for free? The same can be said for music, just like movies, books, and other forms of entertainment. The only person that should decide whether or not music should be made available for free is the artists themselves.

      • MoonSnake

        What? This is a fucking stupid argument. Anyone with ANY artistic integrity would be, at the very least, pleased that their music is being sought out and listened to, illegally or not. The middle finger? Seriously? Savvy musicians know that they are not going to be bringing in a lot of money through record sales, it’s merch they’re concerned with. If you want to support an artist, buy a shirt and give them some real money, not just the percentages the record company gives them for album sales (unless of course you are talking about self-produced and released, smaller acts, in which case they would probably be happy just to get some more exposure for their music, if it wasn’t free already, which it probably was).

        The artistic, emotional, and personal significance of a band or artist’s music is not diminished when someone pirates it. An album doesn’t disappear from existence when someone pirates it. People aren’t maliciously stealing away art from artists, they just want to hear some music. There will always be people out there who will want to give you their (monetary) support, if you’re good enough

      • Adam

        Great post man. It is my understanding that a record label is kind of like a bank, they give you a loan (or a certain amount of money) with which to record an album (which buys things like studio time, gear, travel, food, etc.). Then, when the album starts selling, a percentage of they money goes back to the record label to pay them back for their investment in you. After the label is paid back, then the artist starts making more money off the album sales. Is this all true?

  • B-Rent

    I also prefer physical copies of a cd. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost crashed trying to find a song on my mp3 player with 7000 songs on it.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Manka/100000083183511 Tony Manka

      CDs are definatly the way to go for driving in the car. Though it would be sweet if we found a replacement for that too…. please dont use your mp3 player with 7000 songs

      • ben

        My car stereo has a USB port. I bought a stamp-sized 2GB USB drive, loaded about 15 albums worth of music on it. I swap them out every now and then. No more disc changers or big CD notebooks in the front seat. Much better.

        • Matt

          Exactly, you could also take 10 seconds to make a playlist. Also, up here in Canada my CD’s tend to freeze overnight, sometimes rendering them completely useless. I can’t justify purchasing them anymore.

        • Jeremy

          My car stereo can take CDs and store the music as playlists in .WMA format on a built in hard drive. It’s also able to recognize most CDs pre-2010 without me having to go in and manually title them.

  • Kuranes

    I buy music exactly like this guy: eMusic first (I’m on the same plan), Amazon MP3 second and iTunes/Zune in a pinch. I have many hundreds of CDs at home from my pre-digital days but they’re all in CD folders in my garage since I don’t need them anymore. If something doesn’t show up on any of these outlets I’ll wait a while, but not six months. I waited for Kvelertak for months and tried to buy it from different European digital outlets but was thwarted every time. So I downloaded it from some fileshare site. Same for the Gallowbraid EP – where can I buy this? Nowhere.

  • Brian

    I love my CDs, and buy them regularly. I also budget $150 a month for buying music! But I agree with the article! there is no reason not to have at least a simultaneous digital release, if not a digital and physical release. Luckily, between CMDistro, Relapse, Omega Order, and Amazon I can usually find every release I want, but there is no reason for me to have to search for the import at a good price when there could just as easily be a domestic release.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ben-Alexander/1092891172 Ben Alexander

    So this guy “wants to pay for the music”? Bullshit, the asshole stole it. If he wanted to buy it waiting isn’t all that hard. Is patience really that hard of a virtue to muster up?

    • TJ

      I think the point of the article just flew about 20 feet over your head…

    • Matt

      His point is that he shouldn’t have to wait. Which he shouldn’t.

      • Matt

        Disregard

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ben-Alexander/1092891172 Ben Alexander

        He completely undermines the valid points he brought up by stealing the album. I don’t give a shit about him crying that it comes out at a later date, he stole the damn album which is completely and totally wrong.

        • Alex_P

          No it isn’t. You’re equating “pirating” to “stealing”, which it isn’t. The artist/label won’t make money if you d/l the album off a torrent site, but they won’t lose either. This is different than if you were to go into a store and steal a CD. Now, I recognize that most people don’t always purchase albums any more, but many people who download music will actually pay for it later. The downloading this guy did is equivalent to borrowing a book from a friend and then purchasing it. I strongly doubt that Mike Skinner will be suing his ass any time soon, especially since he intends to support the artist.

          Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong. I’m someone who lives on about 10K a year, and that includes tuition, books and other such expenses (but thankfully not rent or food). I do purchase music, but I can only purchase albums I really like. Streaming is nice, but to tell if I truly love an album I generally need to have it on my iPod. When I’ve taken it to the gym, studied to it, walked my dog to it, etc. I’ll know just how much I value it, and in many cases I will get the CD so I can have album art and something to play on the stereo when I’ve got the house to myself. I will also d/l albums I have vinyl copies of for free, because I don’t necessarily feel like I need to buy two copies of the same album.

          • Seb

            Yes, it is stealing. Your book borrowing analogy is flawed. The friend would have had to originally purchased the book, then lent it to you. The writer, publisher, distributor, and book store all received a particular percentage of that sale. Once you have read the book, you would give it back to your friend since it is their property. Once returned, you would not still have a copy of that book. There is only one owner of said book. When you download music files from torrents, you can’t assume that you are getting your files from people who have legitimately procured the music. Maybe they have, but perhaps every subsequent person who downloads thinks that they are getting it from someone who did actually pay for the album. So does the next, and the next etc. You’re just passing the buck and assuming that someone else will take care of paying the artist.

            You are taking something that is not yours. The artist is creating a product. It may not be a tangible object, but it belongs to them. It’s the artist’s intellectual property. Just because their creation exists in a digital format does not mean one can forgo the rights that are attributed to other forms of physical media. It is like walking into a music store, bringing your laptop, opening a CD case, and ripping the music.

            I’m not saying that the music industry is fine the way it is; clearly there are a myriad of things that must be adjusted for the digital age.There are other ways to help the music industry progress. DRM-free media, new channels for the delivery of content, and changes to the artist-label relationship.

            I wholeheartedly agree with Ben Alexander. I do not feel sorry that the writer that had to spend A WHOLE FUCKING 20 MINUTES (/sarcasm) looking for music online. Who gives a shit? The problem is that this asshole (and many people like him) are used to instant gratification. Get a life. Not everyone can or should get everything they want all the time. That’s just not possible. I agree that having differing international dates is retarded, but we’ve got to work with what we’ve got right now. If you’re unhappy with the present situation, do something. Write labels, distributors, and artists and tell them what you want. They are not trying to deprive you of music, they want your money!

            Final point.: Access to music is not a right (someone on this site said this a while back).

  • Anthony

    I still don’t understand the idea behind different release dates. How is the market in Europe so much different from the market in North America that having the release dates 2 weeks apart makes a difference?

    • Suraj

      Often it depends on where the label is. If a label has better sales in Europe than in America, Europe will be priority, and they won’t send them to America until they’re sure they can make a profit through the costs of overseas shipping.

    • Stu

      “How is market in Europe so much different?”

      Really??????

  • Cryzthormagnusian

    I had that problem with a k-os album. For some dumbass reason they decided to release the album in April 2009 in Canada, they waited until November 2009 to release it on Itunes for U.S. downloads and then finally released the CD in February 2010 in the US and May 2010 in the UK.

    Record labels are not going to be as lucky as the car makers who got the “too big to fail” bailouts for being dumbasses, they need to wake up.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Anselm-Graham/1365979343 Anselm Graham

    Any band or artist that isn’t completely disgusted by the idea of profiting off of their art has zero musical integrity.

  • CrownofWorms

    Alot of people forget that convenience does not equal best quality. I’m 15 and buy cd’s and vinyl. Nothing beats having the art,lyrics, and linear notes. What I do is that I download the album and then I see if it is a buy. It all caters to the person and for some reason it has to be some black and white argument and not something where the two can coexist.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Vince-Edwards/184804344 Vince Edwards

    Vince from Metal Blade here. We try to coordinate our releases between territories as much as possible, but a myriad of production issues, coupled with bands delivering art and music on time, will never allow labels to coordinate releases to come out at the same time worldwide. Being in the music business isn’t easy and when you’re putting out upwards of 10 albums a month, it gets hairy. You can armchair quarterback this all day long, but until you’ve been in the proverbial trenches, it’s hard to understand how difficult dealing with that many artists, manufacturers and countries can be.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Vince-Edwards/184804344 Vince Edwards

      By “never allow labels to coordinate releases to come out at the same time worldwide” I more meant that it won’t ALWAYS happen, but more often than not, it does happen. If anything, there will be a 3-4 day gap between the G|A|S territories releasing the week prior UK and North America. That’s just based on distributor schedules and what the standard is for retail street dates in any given territory.

  • KMFCM

    I remember when “words from the exit wound” (which ended up being one of the worst Napalm Death albums anyway) came out, they had no US distributionl
    They had no US distribution for like a year.
    Napster was still around.
    Everyone on Napster was up late getting the album from people in England who already had it.

  • http://www.metalhit.com Mike Riddick

    Staggering release dates is not so much the decision of the label inasmuch as it is the limitations placed on labels by distributors. Distributors in varying territories also vary in the release dates they can have available. If you could see the scheduling nightmare that confronts independent labels you would understand why release dates can be staggered among various territories. It could also have to do with budget pressures as well. Running a label properly is a very challenging task especially with one or few employees…so while staggered release dates may suck, it’s a byproduct of the nature of the business when publishing on a global scale.

  • Robobigfoot

    Sure is a lot of whining, entitlement, and thinly veiled justification going on surrounding what is clearly a commercial product.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Matt-Cooper/864625407 Matt Cooper

    BANDCAMP!

  • Nick

    “But selling it to some people in some countries and not selling it to others is messed up. And selling it in CD only format is messed up. And posting the entire record on the web for streaming without making the content available for purchase is messed up.”

    I’m not sure I really get this. How is it messed up? This attitude seems very much as if you are entitled to music in the format of your choosing. would this be nice? Yes. Are you entitled to it? No. While I don’t necessarily disagree with the underlying message, this whole article seems a bit spoiled. “I want this album, and I want it now” How hard is it to wait a month for a new album to drop in your country? It would seem that everything that has been said about iPods making people impatient is true, and this is coming from someone who listens to his ipod on a daily basis.

    Chill out, it’s really not a big deal that you might have to wait a little longer to listen to your album, especially when it’s available for streaming online. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be moving towards anyway? cloud-based music?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ian-Murphy/1037267155 Ian Murphy

    AMEN!

    I have found myself in the exact same position as the OP, for bands that are some of my favorites.

    And every time someone does this, there is a signficant risk they will never get around for paying for the album when it eventually, months later, is available to buy. The records companies are shooting themselves in the head, which at this point should surprise absolutely no one.

  • Nick

    The part of the world I’m in, I wouldnt be able to check out the bands I like if it wasnt for piracy…