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typicalgirls - Re: [TypicalGirls] 4. Re: Rough Trade launch digital store (mike@appelstein.com)

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Subject: Typical Girls: Women in Punk/Post-Punk/Underground Music (Circa 1975-1980s)

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  • From: Daniel Selzer <danselzer AT yahoo.com>
  • To: "Typical Girls: Women in Punk/Post-Punk/Underground Music (Circa 1975-1980s)" <typicalgirls AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [TypicalGirls] 4. Re: Rough Trade launch digital store (mike AT appelstein.com)
  • Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 11:34:23 -0800 (PST)

all those early rough trade releases definitely
reverted to the artists...or to whatever company
bought them. I spent a lot of time hunting stuff down
in an effort to put out a cool expanded CD of Wanna
Buy A Bridge, as I mentioned here previously. I
should've stuck to my rule of not talking up potential
projects because it looks like we may not be able to
go through with it. 2 of the songs are owned by major
labels who are expensive to deal with, while 1 song,
We Are All Prostitutes, has been absolutely denied for
licensing. And dealing with a compilation where you
have to split royalties so many ways, especially with
the "best rate" as defined by the major labels, it all
comes out to us losing a great deal of money.

On the flipside, we are working on a series of digital
only releases, and I plan to stop releasing CDs
alltogether in the near future. It's a whole debate,
but I can assure you as someone who is a total vinyl
fetishist, someone who completely adores record
packaging artwork, I'm the last person who'd say it's
time to kill the physical manufacturing of musical
media, however after thinking long and hard, I think
it's the smart way to go and it's the future.
Personally, I buy the occasional CD, rip it into my
computer, listen to it on my computer, stream it to my
stereo via a Squeezebox, and listen on my iPod. More
and more young people are only experiencing music
digitally, online sales are increasing
exponentially...there's an exciting future in all
this, perhaps. Anthology Recordings in NY
http://www.anthologyrecordings.com/ has become the
first digital ONLY reissue label and well, I plan on
following in those footsteps but in a completely
different manner. You'll have to wait a few months to
see what I mean though.

As far as the research I did regarding Wanna Buy a
Bridge, I'll be contacting everyone this week to let
them know, and with several of the artists, maybe
hoping to work something else out, as of course I
agree, there's still so much wonderful music to make
available.

And speaking of Scritti Politti, I hadn't heard the
new album, and missed their show friday night in NY
because I'm just that lazy these days, didn't even
catch the Slits. Then saturday got an email that they
were performing for free at a record store in
Williamsburg, and since my girlfriend and I were
planning on driving down there late afternoon for some
shopping and dinner, I figured why not stop by. The
little cafe they performed at was packed, Green was
charming and funny, and they sounded wonderful. Only
stuck around for a bit but picked up the new CD on the
way out and have enjoyed it in the car this morning. I
feel like he's reached some sort of Robert Wyatt level
of diy art-pop music. Really wonderful stuff, and to
think we saw the show in such a space, I always love
that.

-dan selzer
acute records
nyhappenings




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