From Adam J Weitzman Sent Fri, Sep 25th 1998, 14:15
Hail, hail, the gang's still here. Five-year veteran in effect, y'all. Frankly, I too find the "limited" trend rather annoying. It makes it extremely difficult to plan your purchases if certain good music that you're looking for is only available in a one-week window, or by immediate pre-order (so you don't really know *when* it's going to come out, only that you have to pay for it now in order to get it later). Despite rumors to the contrary, the amount of money one has to buy music is not unlimited, and deciding how to spread it around can be a royal nuisance when the "opportunity" to get into something limited is an unbelievably small timeframe. There's a sense of urgency: if I don't buy it *now* I'll never have the opportunity to do so, and then I'll never hear it unless I pay a collector's price for it. On top of that, you often have to decide to buy before you have any idea what it is you're getting. When you think about it, it kinda makes sense for the label in the short run. What would you rather do, press 2000 and hope that word of mouth gets a quarter of them out of your basement, or press 250, many of them presold already, and be done with them and on to the next thing with the wad of cash you just got? However, I think it can be very damaging in the long run, because if/when you finally get to the point that you *can* sell 2000 copies of your next release through normal channels, no one will be able to find your older stuff, and you'll be too busy cranking out new stuff to reissue the older stuff. People just get frustrated, which leads to MP3s/CDRs and all that other semi-unsavory stuff. I just think it would be nice if I had more than a week (or two) to decide whether I'm going to purchase something now, or never be able to do so again. It can get to be a drag sometimes. NP: Ultramarine - Every Man And Woman Is A Star -- Adam J Weitzman NewsEdge Corporation This space intentionally left http://www.newsedge.com blank. Except for this part. http://www.newspage.com