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stormspell wrote:
Which brings another interesting point: One of my bigger sellers have been LICH KING - originally a one-man studio project which haven't even played live until recently. Would I have been able to sell so many copies of the first two albums if it wasnt for the aggressive self-promotion of Tom Martin on every online venue possible with hooking fans with free mp3s and such? I really dont think so... Food for thought.

stormspell wrote: Howdy,

Honestly I didn't want to get involved in this thread as it is such a broad and complicated issue and my English is not so good to let me express my thoughts clearly in the way I'd like. So here is an abbreviated version of my position on this issue:

In general I try to be positive and not to let such things bother me. The reason is, ALL new albums end up being ripped off and uploaded on the net as soon as the release is out, if not sooner. This is the nature of the beast.
I just prefer to think that I do cater to that small part of the population which would make the effort to buy it if they like it. So from that stand point I do not think the free downloads hurt my sales much. I've said it many times before, and I do mean it when I say there are fans which would find a way to support a band/label, and there are leechers which would not buy and find an excuse even if we start selling it for $1.00, so it is all irrelevant in my opinion. So if we take the old saying "the dogs are barking and the caravan is moving", to paraphrase it accordingly: the leechers are downloading, and the business is moving on...

All those corporate businesses and organizations which cry wolf and try to milk every cent from every sound sample and police the internet - crying out loud and counting "loss of profit" at every free download, they are way too optimistic in my opinion. Those downloads thrive coz they are free, charge money for 'em and they'll be gone in a flash.

Same with the samples - how many of you would browse myspace in search of new bands if you got charged $0.99 every time you check a tune? Or have to pay a subscription fee to use youtube? It just wont work and there wouldnt be much profit to gain from it. The only thing would be, people would not be familiar with many of the bands they are now.

Which brings another interesting point: One of my bigger sellers have been LICH KING - originally a one-man studio project which haven't even played live until recently. Would I have been able to sell so many copies of the first two albums if it wasnt for the aggressive self-promotion of Tom Martin on every online venue possible with hooking fans with free mp3s and such? I really dont think so... Food for thought.

rumblefist wrote:Sometimes there's interesting bands that have only "mp3" to sell .
Their stuff isn't available to buy in any album because it wasn't released in any form privately or by any label.
Just for example :

Enticer (Australia) - Unreleased Album (1991)
Metalworks (US) - Unfinished Business (2009) (80's recordings )

nightsblood wrote:example- last record show I was at, some guys were gawking at a dealer who had the Valhalla EP for sale at $150. They'd never heard of it; so they both whipped out i-phones, dialed up Metal Archives, and in less than 2 minutes they knew how long it was, read a review of it, and were loading up popsike to see if the price was fair. They then d/l'ed it to see if it was any good. Neither guy bought it. At that point, the record had been stripped of its allure. They learned everything about it and downloaded a copy in a few minutes; at that point, most people are not gonna attach much value to the physical item. The dealer and I just exchanged sad looks once they wandered off.

DaN wrote: The Underrated have conquered the Overrated! Can I have a 'yay internet!' please? No? OK, sorry...