Metal labels big and small

edited April 2010 in Metal
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

  • Hey HeArTFiRe !

    I just want to say Hi and welcome to Emusers !
  • I'm wondering if part of the issue for those labels is the fact that they were on eMu back when the payouts were a lot smaller per unit. I know I got all the Metal Blade albums back when eMu was charging all you can eat for $9.95 a month - I doubt they made more than a penny an album in my case. They probably have the opinion that being on eMu is basically giving their albums away. Now that the payouts are a lot higher per album, I wish that they would revisit the idea.

    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.....
  • Hi, and welcome!

    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.
  • It seems to me that some of these metal labels are used to having small, but dedicated, audiences that shell out full price for releases and aren't convinced that they can expand the size enough to make up for lost revenue... Wow, that actually really makes sense to me right now.

    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.
  • Thank you all for your responses!! I agree with your thoughts on this, very interesting as for relapse records someone I knew worked for them and they never gave a answer if they would be coming back to emusic. All they ever said was try amazon mp3 store that all I need from them is there. Neither label has or plans for new contracts with emusic at this time. I guess that's why I use multi services for my music lol. Again thanks for your thoughts!! :)
  • Relapse just returned to eMusic. Oddly enough, they don't seem to be doing album-only pricing... yet. Mastodon's Leviathan is only 10 credits even though track 9 is over 13 minutes.
  • Ya relapse is back indeed just I haven't seen all the old skool stuff yet they use to have on emusic, they had most all the old stuff before they left. Maybe in time they will bring all of it back, im sure hoping so.
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