This is a discussion in regards to releasing a recording on vinyl, and putting a piece of paper inside that allows you to go on the magical internets and download the mp3 files of the album.


Here is my two cents:

There has never been a more perfect way to release music for the discerning listener.

Here's why:

I prefer vinyl, for all the garden variety of reasons people enjoy vinyl (and YES, mostly because I find there is a real and specific difference in listening to analog vs. digital forms of transduction).

As much as I can find a release on vinyl, I will buy it in that form. However, when I cannot find it on vinyl, I would purchase the CD.

So I have a wall of records, and a wall of CDs.

This summer, my girlfriend finally convinced me to buy an iPod, under the spell that I could have a huge library of sound with me at all times. I finally took the plunge and began to upload almost all of my CDs to a second hard drive (which took some time, yep). I'm aware of the compression involved in changing formats but when it's all said and done, it's still digital conversion, whether it's smashed to shit or at a 48khz sampling rate. So why not just move it all to an vastly more ergonomic interface?

When it was all done, I realized that for all intents and purposes, my compact disc collection was utterly irrelevant.

(Yeah, I know... "rich man's 8track tape." Shut up.)


So now that I have no use for CDs, whenever I find an album that lets me download mp3s from their site (matador and subpop have done this, and others I'm sure), I feel like there are others who know where this is all leading.

It's a good feeling.


So let's talk about it.

Yeah, good idea but mp3's still sound like a leper's diarrhoea hitting concrete.

sounds good to me!

This is a great fucking idea.

The Rise of the MP3 player has provided me eith an awesomely convenient way to hear anything I want whenever I want AND strengthened my affection for the vinyl format.

CD's are completely irrelevant at this point, as a listener. They are bulky and they are digital.

Even if you buy some kind of Vinyl digitizer technology, its still kind of bothersome, and thus at times you may end up foolishly buying the vinyl and the digital.

Eliminate the middleman.

JDanger wrote:
Eliminate the middleman.

My sentiments exactly.

I think Uzeda's Stella was like this. If you bought it on vinyl, you got a special code for iTunes to d/l the whole album.

i released a lathe cut 8" single which included a cdr of the tracks from the record (in fact, one of the tracks was an extended version as it had to be edited to fit on the 8" in the first place).

I'm also doing a 7" vinyl single where an mp3 download will be available once someone buys the record.

I see it as a nice bonus...

you must've flunked out of evil record label college.

Not a bad idea at all. I wonder when it's all said and done, will this reward the vinyl buyer, or no?

As far as I know, all new Touch & Go releases already do this, too. I agree it's a good idea, and wish more labels would follow suit.