March 13, 2007
Guilt
Posted by Hal Bogerd at March 13, 2007 12:01 AMI miss the days of "Poindexter Records" on 9th Street. Knowledgable and friendly clerks (John Howie Jr. of Two Dollar Pistols!) would guide you to cool tunes or new releases if you needed help. Sadly, many independent music stores have slowly been put out of business by the major retail chains.
To make matters worse, artists (including Lucinda Williams and Son Volt) are licensing special editions of their lastest releases to Best Buy. Lucinda gave listeners two "Best Buy exclusive" tracks (demos of songs from the album) on "West" if they purchased it at Best Buy. Son Volt adds a separate three song disc of "bonus" material when you buy "The Search". I'm enjoying the Son Volt disc, but the "bonus" tunes are interesting not essential listening. How often am I going to pop that 3 song cd into the cd player? Did I really need that "special edition"? Hey Jay, why not burn those three tracks on "The Search" and let ALL of your fans have them? I'd still want the Son Volt "Best Buy exclusive" iffin' I didn't buy it. I'm feeling a little guilty about supporting Best Buy. What's a collector to do if you don't live near a Best Buy? I guess you can wait until the "Best Buy exclusive" is no longer available and ask me to burn you a copy of the three out-of-print bonus tracks. You can't feel guilty about that....can you?
Son Volt also had 3-song bonus CD -- a different one, I think -- available from indie stores. So while it hurts my soul to think that they're doing anything to help Best Buy, which I hate with the heat of 1,000 suns, they're helping indie stores, too, I guess.
But really, I'm with you Hal. How's about helping the fans not have to buy your CD three times just to collect all the bonus tracks?
Posted by: stacy at March 13, 2007 1:19 AMAnd the record industry wonders why it has problems. When "Last Man Standing" by Jerry Lee Lewis came out there were about 5 versions, each with exclusive tracks. I suppose it is only hurting the completists among us (uh...that's me), but I think when the general public sees things like this, and special editions 6 months after the regular edition is released, it registers in their mind as greed.
Posted by: Eric at March 13, 2007 10:59 AMAs much as I'm against illegal downloading, this makes me want to do it. I figure I've already paid for the album, so it's OK if I want the complete release without being fleeced, right?
Posted by: Dusty Bear at March 13, 2007 12:49 PMDon't forget to buy/rent the other 8 "bonus" tracks from iTUNES
Posted by: Hal at March 13, 2007 1:00 PMI was out on Napster, and they have for Son volt what is called the Search(Deluxe Version)which seems to have 22 songs on it(theres 14 on the non-deluxe version).
I know people love itunes, but for $14.95 unlimited downloads, Napster has a lot of good indie/folk stuff out there. I find a lot of the music mentioned on this site there.
Posted by: Jared at March 13, 2007 10:12 PM$14.95 per month from Napster sounds great until you realize that you will lose access to ALL of your music if you stop paying.
I prefer to buy my music not rent it.
Posted by: Hal at March 13, 2007 11:08 PMwell, i say we put our monkey where our mouth is. if the consensus is that it is ok to trade (not share, there IS a difference) bonus tracks, then lets start it up. right now. i've got the best buy bonus tracks for endless highway: tribute to the band, and if anyone wants to trade for those other bonus tracks, email me :). i know this is sort of off-topic, and i don't have the new son volt yet. but if this works, maybe we can continue it. what do ya'll think? please...no one yell at me :/
Posted by: JD at March 13, 2007 11:23 PMJD, I feel your pain, but HickoryWind.org can in no way endorse song trading. (Even if in a case like this we might feel justified.) It's a slippery slope, you know?
Posted by: larry at March 14, 2007 11:41 AM
