From Greg Earle Sent Mon, Jan 5th 1998, 01:44
> Greg Earle wrote: > >> fucking > > Wow, man! I've never seen so many fucks in my life! Congrats. haha! I noticed that when I re-read it before posting. Sorry about that, I was hyperventilating :-) >> Another reason Mego and A-Musik et al. don't get discussed - in addition to >> the easily-sussed "They aren't easily obtainable" - is because I suspect >> most of their output is 12" vinyl; > > Fortunately (for those who care), you are very wrong. Both Mego and > A-musik entered the digital age a long time ago (now, wouldn't it be > ironic if Mego, one of *the* most 'digital' labels I know, would only > release stuff on vinyl? Indeed it would.), so that's simply not a > valid excuse. OK, point taken. I'll fall back to my next excuse then: availability. I've never seen a General Magic CD. Nor a Wabi Sabi. Nor FX Randomix (to quote the examples you used below). And once in a blue moon when I get into a good specialist's store (like DropBeat up in Oakland) I tend to get those things that I see which I've either been looking for or which I think might be rare or hard to come by in the future if I pass it up. In those stores, I tend to be awash in zillions of obscure stuff that I Just Don't Know about. It's frustrating as all Hell! I'm sure this must be true for other IDM'ers ... >> sorry mate but I just can't be arsed to spend >> money on the worst value-for-money there is in music, the (usually) imported >> 12" vinyl record ... US $10.99 (and up!) for 2 or 3 tracks is just not my > > This is just a By The Way: I pay about $20 for every CD I order from Ouch! > M.DOS (M.DOS is Mego's very own distribution network that includes > stuff from trente oiseaux, Soleilmoon, Sonig, A-Musik, Mantra (Pierre > Henry!), and, of course, Mego), which is in fact *cheaper* than the > *regular* price for regular, non-import CDs sold in Norway. Price for > normal CDs are, believe it or not, approaching $30 (!!!) - today's > price is about $26-27 ... it's getting quite insane! Normal CD's the price of that imported Reflection I bought? Now *that* truly is insane ... it just serves to underline my point from my rant, that being with prices so high, how can you take a chance when it costs so much to make a mistake? $26-$27 a pop, bloody 'ell! >> (Do I really need to insert my "Why I think all music should be MP3'ized and >> put up on the Web" rant here? Is it really *that* hard to understand that >> people are naturally hesitant to blindly buy music on obscure labels that >> they haven't heard ahead of time? Especially when it's so costly?) > > And here's my main point: M.DOS (see above) has Real Audio files - > extracts or complete tracks - for EVERY SINGLE RELEASE in their catalogue! Ah! Now we're talkin' mate! (Of course, a Real Audio snippet is hardly a substitute for a full-length MP3, but I suppose you have to start somewhere.) > This, of course, basically means that if you really want > Mego or A-musik stuff, all you have to do is visit their Web site, > install a RA-player together with the browser of your choice, and > listen to everything they've got. FX Randomix? He's there. General > Magic? They are there. Wabi Sabi? He's there. etc. etc. etc. > > M.DOS can be visited at: > > http://www.Austria.EU.net/frank/mego/ I know someone's posted this URL before, but I don't recall anyone mentioning that it had the Real Audio files ... (so thanks) Ultimately, my point remains the same: as long as music remains so expensive, it's less and less likely that someone will be inclined to buy something that is completely unheard and if they know little about the release, the artist or the label. I think the only way to solve this problem is to flatten the playing field, and make the music accessible in some universal way so as to make it possible to hear as many things as possible before purchasing. When people post reviews (as opposed to idiotic rants like this (-: ) I get a lot of useful data out of them from this list. We need as much data as possible. Whinging about how we should be buying Mego and A-Musik does us no good. - Greg