rosiedoes | (no subject)

Does anyone else miss bands releasing real singles?

You remember the kind: you'd get all excited waiting for the release day, then you'd head down to the local record shop on your lunchbreak or after school/work, then you'd get home and actually put it in a CD player to listen.

And there would be B-sides! Actual B-sides! Other songs, not related to the album - not just remixes or cover versions - real, additional tracks from your favourite band. Bonus music for being dedicated enough to go and buy the singles.

Now, you get shitty, lower-quality versions on iTunes, no B-sides and you can't use it on more than a couple of formats. Yeah, they might be cheaper, but they're not tangible. When I buy something, I want to be able to hold it in my hand, y'know?

And what especially pisses me off is now Fall Out Boy are releasing their new album on iTunes track by track. Sure, there will be a CD on November 4th, but for those of us who prefer to do the ritual - the going to the shop, the peeling off the plastic and the reading the inlay booklet during that first listen; hearing the whole album in order, as it was planned to be heard - are fucked. Sure, we can wait for the new album to come out in the shops, but this is the internet age. This is the blog age, where people will be posting reviews within minutes of the tracks being made available. For anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled and want to discover the tracks in context by ourselves, it means avoiding the internet, or the comms where it would be likely to be discussed.

Yes, leaks happen; but with leaks, there is generally a divide between those who will wait for the official version, and those who will go ahead and download the music. If the music is made legally available ahead of time, presumably in an attempt to curb the leaks and promote interest, many more people will have access to it and will be discussing it openly, assuming everyone has heard it.

This may even be detrimental to the album sales (the single didn't even make the top twenty in Billboard's Hot 100, and in the Canadian chart has already dropped to #89 in its second week), because as soon as it is made available on iTunes, it can be decoded and leaked to the general public - which may result in lower album sales. Infinity on High was leaked a few days before it was due for release, but a strong moral section of the fanbase refused to download illegally and casual fans were unlikely to know with any great certainty where to access the leak. If more people have early access to the songs, they can be reposted more widely.

In a nutshell, I think this iTunes thing is a stupid idea and the more I see Pete promoting it, the more I want to shake him. People aren't buying the single because they already have it and there is no incentive to spend money on something they can get for free behind closed doors. To the best of my knowledge, the single doesn't have a CD release date (if it does, please tell me so I can go and buy it), and if that is a case there is nothing for fans who will have accessed the track already (almost all illegally, I'm fairly certain) to gain from spending money through Apple (who I dislike intensely anyway).

In fact, I resent being forced to give money to a company I dislike, just so I can hear music from my favourite band. I don't own an iPod, or an iPhone, I didn't even have iTunes installed until I wrote a review on it for HRE - I hadn't actually opened the programme since.

Why should I be dictated to about where to spend my money?

The more I think about this, the angrier I get.

Threaded | Flat

One note: I though I was the only one in the world who didn't have itunes at this point. I'm waaayyy too cheap to pay for it, plus there's a bunch of really good pay-mp3 services out there.

2nd note: I agree with what you're saying. This is may end up working to their disadvantage with the album coming out track by track. People are just going to end up getting it illegally and then the people who get it track by track will probably not buy the fucking album because they already brought it. That's going to hurt their record sales which are way more important than the money they make off the singles. They have to sell enough records in order to pay off whatever they spent to make the album and then they can enjoy the income coming in.

I can understand a digital release, like, all at once..but this? I want to shake them. Its a dumb idea.

the thing that gets to me the most is this lack of b-sides. some of my favourite placebo tracks ever are b-sides, & they've got enough to make a whole album collection's worth, & when their new album came out in 2006, out of the four or five singles that came off the album, there was only one new track on the b-sides. everything else was a boring crappy dance mix of something or other, & it was really kind of depressing. the only band i've heard a decent amount of b-side material from recently is my chem, who released three new tracks on their three singles for the black parade. fuck this remix shit, bring back the fucking b-sides.

I still miss vinyl. Crackles, jumps and all, it still makes me go all prickly-necked.

Gah! But then I'm old.

I get what you mean. It's lame to know its being released mainly through iTunes.
Okay, i download music illegally because i am not made of money and i cant fund my own cd habit. The thing is though, every time i like a CD i buy it. It feels much more better (that isnt the word i should be using but i cant think of anything else right now) to have the physical cd in my hands and on my shelf.
Its not just about the cd case either. I love looking inside the leaflet and everything, to see photos and the way they've laid the words out (like MCS Commit this to memory bonus version cd, thats amazing).
If they release the music track by track i'm not going to listen to them. Its like the thing i did with TAI, i listened to 3 and stopped until it actually came out. I never listened to the GCH tracks until i saw Peace Sign/Index down on my tv screen.

so wait until 4 november for the CD. the digital music scene is here until they start piping music into our heads and a couple generations from now people will laugh at the oldies who still discuss the merits of MP3 versus OGG.