wait...people EXPECT a free cd with LP purchase, now? seems greedy to me. if the listener wants the musical program on mp3, or cd, let them rip it themselves, i say. remember when you had to make a cassette copy if you wanted to take music in the car (or wherever)? the cd's that have come in a few LP's i have purchased remain unlistened to. it's a nice gesture, but unnecessary (for me).

areopagite wrote:Including a CD is just a senseless cost on the part of the label.

About as senseless as supporting a download link. It costs money to push data over a network. Also, costs money to program the technology. There's also the same insertion fee for a slip of paper for the download link as there is for a CD. It's definitely worthy of a debate though. I think both solutions have their merits.

For small labels such as Highwheel or Sickroom, it's more cost efficient and less prone to issues to print a CD and insert it into the LP packaging. For larger labels, like Sub Pop, who can pay people to produce web applications. It makes more sense and is probably less costly to provide a download link, as they probably own their own web server and/or can justify the heavy hosting fees for their websites.

When I buy a record, I don't expect to get anything but the record. Generally, I just buy CDs.

I appreciate the bands who do this as a courtesy because then I don't have to hunt down the tracks in MP3 format for my iPod.

It's a very nice gesture but it would be churlish to expect it as a given.

Better question:

When you buy a sandwich, do you expect condiments?

When a download coupon is included, what I do expect is a compatible format.

I bought that fine new Portishead on lp, and the dang download was only for Windows players. I like to stay clear of Microsoft on my Mac, so I was disappointed by Mercury.

jurgis rudkus wrote:When a download coupon is included, what I do expect is a compatible format.

I bought that fine new Portishead on lp, and the dang download was only for Windows players. I like to stay clear of Microsoft on my Mac, so I was disappointed by Mercury.

I've had download links not work for me, or servers die out while processing my request, hence killing my one-time download. I've spent a week contacting the label and trying to get my MP3 copies. Sometimes the label responds and helps me out. Other times I've gotten no response. It's not perfect and needs to be monitored by people who know how to fix these types of problems, which adds to the cost. The nice thing about a CD is that as long as it plays, you can rip it. Every computer comes with a DVD or CD player, so there's no compatibility issues.

And yeah, Mercury got the whole thing wrong...

voerking wrote:wait...people EXPECT a free cd with LP purchase, now? seems greedy to me. if the listener wants the musical program on mp3, or cd, let them rip it themselves, i say. remember when you had to make a cassette copy if you wanted to take music in the car (or wherever)? the cd's that have come in a few LP's i have purchased remain unlistened to. it's a nice gesture, but unnecessary (for me).

i don't think anyone said they expected anything, just that downloads are nice bonus when you get an lp record.

A CD is very appreciated, but I don't expect it.

For what it's worth, I much prefer CDs to MP3 downloads. I've realized lately that I prefer the sound of AACs to MP3s, so it's nice to have a lossless backup on the hard drive to make derivatives from in various formats at various times. Also, iPod data capacities are increasing to the point where I'll be able to listen to my music in a lossless format.

Still, a simple chunk of vinyl is good enough for me.

another way to look at it (how i've been thinking lately) is we all know the vinyl is cooler. and people are buying way less music overall, and cds. so - if you're entering this money losing proposition of pressing your own shit (or, you are a small label about to do so) - do you incur the cost of mfg full cds AND vinyl, of which you will probably only sell a small portion of both. OR, only press vinyl w/the cd - so you get the "ultimate" packaging, and only have to design one layout, get rid of the jewel boxes - and ultimately get more copies of the vinyl out of your house. i'd rather only manage one "music product" per release than trying to blindly guess sales potential of not only the band as a whole, but on TOP of that - which format. take the cash you've saved by not having to press cds and add that to your vinyl budget and only put out the one thing. someone's gonna rip it and they'll be floating about as mp3s before long anyway. and furthermore, you can have a service like tunecore handle all digital distribution. it can still be legally purchased worldwide thru itunes/etc w/minimal overhead to the band/label.

that's sort of how i'm thinking about handling my next release at least.