Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Mailbag - Musical Interlude Part III
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome any and all readers of TIA to send me your rants, ravings, opinions and feedback. I promise to read them all, and will even publish the ones that warrant such treatment (and being as I'm a liberal, by definition my standards are pretty lax). In that spirit I offer up this piece from the reader currently known as "Mike":
While this blog is mostly political in nature, and certainly far more current than what I am ranting about, I hope you'll throw this out there for the masses to discuss. I am speaking as a thirty year old who still gets a huge kick out of going to a record store and flipping through endless CDs before settling on a few. Here is my pet peeve: putting new songs on greatest hits CDs is cardinal sin.
It is the artist/band's way of showing complete disregard for the most loyal fans. Every artist who does this, and there are far too many, doesn't really have a leg to stand on in regards to fans downloading their songs. Generally, a greatest hits cd comes out after 5 albums ($75 in purchases). To hit a fan up for another $15 for one song is terrible.
And I don't want to hear the artist(s) complain that the suits put them up to it. This is not a chicken or egg scenario. Tom Petty (who is guilty of this greatest hits scam also, sadly) once threatened to name an album "don't pay more than $8.99 for this album" so kids wouldn't go broke buying his music. This example is not totally relevant, but it does show that an artist can do a lot to shut the suits up. I know the corporate types at the record labels love greatest hits albums, they probably sell very well and the risk ($$) is far less than the risk in spending money developing new bands or giving a struggling artist another shot, but it's wrong. Also, it's rock and roll, there is nothing wrong with the occassional F you.
Thanks Mike. Keep 'em coming folks...
While this blog is mostly political in nature, and certainly far more current than what I am ranting about, I hope you'll throw this out there for the masses to discuss. I am speaking as a thirty year old who still gets a huge kick out of going to a record store and flipping through endless CDs before settling on a few. Here is my pet peeve: putting new songs on greatest hits CDs is cardinal sin.
It is the artist/band's way of showing complete disregard for the most loyal fans. Every artist who does this, and there are far too many, doesn't really have a leg to stand on in regards to fans downloading their songs. Generally, a greatest hits cd comes out after 5 albums ($75 in purchases). To hit a fan up for another $15 for one song is terrible.
And I don't want to hear the artist(s) complain that the suits put them up to it. This is not a chicken or egg scenario. Tom Petty (who is guilty of this greatest hits scam also, sadly) once threatened to name an album "don't pay more than $8.99 for this album" so kids wouldn't go broke buying his music. This example is not totally relevant, but it does show that an artist can do a lot to shut the suits up. I know the corporate types at the record labels love greatest hits albums, they probably sell very well and the risk ($$) is far less than the risk in spending money developing new bands or giving a struggling artist another shot, but it's wrong. Also, it's rock and roll, there is nothing wrong with the occassional F you.
Thanks Mike. Keep 'em coming folks...
