Metal labels big and small
Of all the mp3 (digital sources) online these days its really clear that even the metal world has its time with labels on emusic. Take metal blade and relapse (roadrunner is starting to come back) they have refused to add the full catalog on emusic's service but yet they do others for .99 cents a song. I have talked to afew people from relapse about the catalog returning fully updated to emusic service and yet i get the same thing, the cold shoulder and silence as if they don't know their own names all of a sudden. That being said this discussion I suppose is about why the metal labels are acting like the major's world wide when they don't even bring near the revenue they do. We (metal lovers) want to buy our favorite bands and try new ones out from a service such as emusic, not just because its cheaper but because we choose that service that we pay for. So as for the labels that I mentioned above to stop acting like its gold and supply the catalogs across the board please, you will make more money if you choose that option. All I gotta say, whats your thoughts on this Metal people? (metal blade/relapse don't make alot of cash they have people working for them that they don't even pay because they are bord)
Comments
I just want to say Hi and welcome to Emusers !
Have you checked out Amie Street for Metal Albums. A ton of Metalhit.com albums - some of them good, some pretty bad, but all pretty cheap. It's a good source for a lot of the Scandinavian Black/Death Metal bands. More Cookie Monster wannabes than you can shake a stick at.....
I'm not much of a metalhead, so I can't summon up the same frustration for Relapse as I might the complete absence of hatHut from eMusic (though even that means little, given that I am not currently a subscriber). However, I like some acts on Southern Lord and HydraHead, two labels that keep their product somewhat up-to-date at eMusic. What I think is funny is that both labels underperform at Amie Street. The New Sunn O))) is still under $3! If Amie can't move the product, even with its low prices, I would tend to think that outlets that require more time and dedication aren't really effective outlets for this kind of music. Of course, I'm inferring a lot, but it could be that Relapse and Metal Blade know the spending tendencies of their customers very well.
The first example that comes to mind is Relapse. They pulled from eMusic and the only "credit-based" service I've found them on is Limewire, but even there they are one of the few labels that are "cash-only". Meaning you have to... I was about to say you have to pay the full $9.99 to get the latest Zombi but I just checked and it's only $4.95 there. Interesting, but you still can't get it with credits.
Perhaps they're afraid of dealing with all of the credit sales and freebies going on. I probably didn't do Southern Lord any favors by clearing out the Boris catalog with some of my Circuit City booster crack (some of those albums probably cost me a dime). But they wisely stuck around and switched to album pricing when it was available (I have mixed feelings over that, but it's a different discussion). You'd think Relapse would go for that, too.