That would make too much sense.

also, almost every label i work with in a distribution capacity doesn’t give a shit about street dates. in this day and age a sale is a sale and if you’ve got product a month before street date, they just want that shit in the stores.

What writers and magazines and sites need to do is admit they have no advantage, time-wise, over the reader, and need to justify what they publish with the quality of their content, not whether it’s a scoop. I know using In Rainbows as an example is kind of taboo around here and it was kind of a unique situation, but if people like a record, they’ll still be talking about it and listening to it a year after the release date, regardless of whether they had that release date on their calenders months beforehand.

Great post, btw, I hope I can find time to read all of it later.

Rather than getting all bent out of shape about reviewing/featuring an album BEFORE its release date, why not feature it slightly after the album is released? That way, if someone reads about it, reads the interview, is interested they can go BUY it rather than do some research, find out it’s not out for another 3 weeks, and grab the torrent file.

Enough with this 4 month wait after an albums finished. If you have people interested and your product is ready to be sold, why not just sell it?

*no snark*

Now you’re just asking too much.

This is pure stupidity on the music labels’ part because they don’t seem to realize that, in the age of the internet, once a product is available anywhere it is available everywhere. Some bands have devoted fan bases that are eager to buy official product and support the artists they admire. In PSB’s case, their multiple releases of additional mixes, some in limited numbers, with brilliantly designed cover art keeps me purchasing actual CDs and vinyl, one of the few artists I can say I still do that for.

A few days ago PSB singer Neil Tennant on the PSB site said he was sick of hearing about people downloading their new album, saying the music industry was “weak.” I hope he was referring to the ridiculous staggered release dates of “Yes” and how it impacted sales.

He seemed to scoff at the idea that people who got it from Limewire and other similar sites saying they intend to buy the CD too. He should know his true fans are serious about this, and the ones that did download it would probably never have bought it in the first place– but there is a chance they would become fans and buy in the future.

A similar idea that would save on shipping would be to load the album onto a small, cheap MP3 player (like an iPod shuffle), then damage the USB connector and glue the headphones into the jack so it can’t be removed.