From mltsnt Sent Mon, Mar 22nd 1999, 21:37
From mltsnt Sent Mon, Mar 22nd 1999, 21:37
I'm CCing this to Dimitri, because I think it's important for him to see this.. > It's funny that Dmitri tries to justify Phthalo's $12 EP & $17 album >pricing by saying that they release stuff by relatively established >artists, unlike most other CDR labels. First of all, I wouldn't say that >any of the musicians he's released music by are very well established at all. exactly, with the exception of The Stranger, I don't think that anything they've released has been by an established artist: To call Low Res established when the Crank CD dropped is outragous, he had like one release out at the time. Now, with the release of (the amazing) Approximate Love Boat and the Mille Plateux signing, maybe, but not six months ago. OST/Rook Villard? I hardly consider him established either... before the Phthalo releases he had like one self released 12", a Space Time Conntiuum, and two tracks for Worm Interface. Robert Merlak put out his first release on the label.. I don't think anyone considers that established, I doubt he considers himself established either. V/Vm are the only ones who could be considered established, but even so, my dealings with them have always showed that they are real nice (even if they are slow with getting tracks in ;-) and somehow I couldn't imagine them making dimitri charge more for their stuff. Don't get me wrong, I really love all of the above artists, but to justify insanely high prices by labeling up and coming artists as established is just bad buisness. I'd rather Dimitri just be straight up and say that the reason he charges high prices is so he can make a few more bucks. Look at the record industry as a whole (I'm talking major and indie). Although the money the artists themselves make differs due to their 'establishment', this NEVER affects what the consumer pays. I'm still going to pay (generally) the same retail price for anyone from Madonna to AFX right down to Johnny Bedroomindiemusician, regardless of how established they are (which is all relative, btw). (This is of course, ignoring imports, etc) To say that a label should charge more (and consumers should pay more) because their artists are established is outragous. Look at Skam, they managed to keep the prices relativley low on the Mask series. I got Mask 2 for like $10 new. This ultra limited edition cost me as much as any Import 12". Somehow I think BoC, Gescom, etc are much more established than OST and Robert Merlak Of course, the price it is sure to fluxate in regards to demand, but the label themselves are no way affiliated with these prices. When Suetsu & Underwood released their 2xCDr last year it was sold for $8, WITH lovely hand made packaging, this opened a lot of people up to the wonderful world of Lucky Kitchen (okay, it probably opened about 32 of them to it, but whatever) The point is that CDrs are a medium of amateurs and convience for the buyers, and if Dimitri wants his artists to be viewed as established and charge prices as if they were real CDs (or more like he does now) he needs to do real pressings. If he wants to do CDrs the prices should reflect the prices on the current CDr market, at most like 7$ for CDEP and $12 for an album. If they were at this price I would have a complete Phthalo collection at this point, rather than my 2 Phthalo CDs (Phthalo 1&2, btw- one of which was a 'real' CD release with artwork and everything). But with the current prices I just cannot bring myself to buy these albums, which is a shame because i really love the ones i have. One final point: I plan on getting Crank when it comes out on Mille Plateux and the import full release will cost less than the domestic CDr... any other labels want to liscense Phthalo stuff? (I might even be willing to voulenteer!!) np: Souls Of Mischief: '93 Till Infinity mlt