best way to support artists?

grady grady at ibiblio.org
Mon Feb 13 19:38:04 EST 2006


Being greedy to sell their own CDs of their own music that they wrote & 
performed and (if they're on a small indie label) might well have also 
paid to record, while they're on tour in a (probably gas-slurping) van, 
sleeping on peoples' floors, eating shitty road food, having to either 
burn up their vacation time, quit their jobs, or maintain the kind of 
slacker jobs that allow them to take off for weeks at a time, getting 
paid a hundred bucks apiece on a "good night" and twenty bucks (or 
nothing) on a "bad night"? Greedy to charge more than $12 for a CD, when 
the average retail price of a [non-loss-leader Best Buy-super-sale] CD 
in the real world is like $16?

Give me a fucking break, man. If they're selling the CD for $15 and you 
know it's at CD Alley for $12, go fucking buy it for $12, but leave the 
self-righteous attitude out of it. Yeesh. Is there any situation in your 
world where the band's interests come first, before those of the fucking 
CD distributors even, for chrissake?

Ross

p.s. Yes, we're all aware that you often pay touring bands more than 
their entitled percentage of the door when attendance is low, and yadda 
yadda. Nobody's seriously questioning your dedication to the bands & 
etc. Which is why I find it so bizarre that you find it so easy to 
accuse bands of being "greedy" in this instance. If nothing else man, 
fuck, let the market do the work--if the CD is in stock at the local 
store for cheaper, and you know it, then you can buy it there.

On the other hand, if you're not sure if the local store has it in 
stock, then maybe that says something about the local store, but in any 
case, no offense to the local store owners, but my allegiance is to the 
band every time.

p.p.s. Half the people I know wait & buy the CD at CD Alley or wherever 
anyway, because they don't like carrying a CD around with them all night 
at a show. Pockets never have grown to be CD-size, except for those 
goddamn cargo pants, which I wore in middle school & don't plan to do so 
again.

Glenn Boothe / Local 506 wrote:

> Back to your A and B, I would NOT buy a CD from a band if they are
> selling it for more than $12, and I see that at 506 from time to time.
> Again, the band is cutting out not one but two middle men (distributor
> and record store,) so for them to sell it higher than the local record
> store, then they are the ones being greedy.  I'd much rather support
> the record store in that case.




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