RTP-area local music and culture

[Matthew Paul <mpaulREMOVETHIS AT duke.edu>]

grady wrote:
> 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.
> 
> 
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene

Here is a situation: how about when a band has their material for sale
on consignment at the local music store. The store gets swallowed up by
a competitor and suddenly the band has to "buy back" consignment items
because the stock was sold to the new store. true story btw.

I would say a hearty yes -- buy straight from the band whenever possible
for all the reasons that Ross mentioned.

I have never run a music store (thank god for all of us) but I am
willing to bet that they probably makes next to nothing (in the grand
scheme of things) from your local artist or underground favorite. They
make money off of the drivel that is spewed across the airwaves.