Minimal Wave Records

[quote author=“falck”]
So again, the best way to go for the labels is to keep making high-quality releases to counter the growing perception of music as disposable “0s” and “1s”.

ahh, but what about embracing this notion of music as 0’s and 1’s? plenty of smaller labels have done well with mp3 sales. and i know plenty of people who would never in their life pay 20 dollars for a record, but would gladly pay for high quality digital files. and this is even preferable for the labels in many ways (negligible overhead, no shipping hassles)...this way the artists and labels get financial support and the fans get their music in an affordable, legitimate format - all that suffers is the (antiquated?) notion of the album as a physical art object.
now, i prefer to see vinyl records selling well, of course, but that is not so much the case these days, outside of collector circuits and die hard fans. as falck said, in response to ton’s complaint of being fanless - there is a threshold between liking something and wanting to buy it (and an even greater threshold between liking something and wanting to pay 100+ dollars for it).  the assertion that one needs to procure the original album to hear the music at all leaves NO room for the casual fan. 
for this scene to grow and be appreciated on a larger scale (obviously we’re not talking top 40 here), some concessions may need to be made for those who really enjoy the music, but don’t have the time or money to make collecting their primary pursuit in life.
i suppose that brings up the question - is that kind of growth or appreciation even valued by this community? does a label selling digital files violate some core principle, does that invalidate the purity and exclusivity of the music at hand?

Hi teachu2die,

Refrained from making a full quote to save some space here.  8)

Well, on principle the format of the music has far less importance than the actual music of course.

With mp3s, you are even capable of separating the product and its packaging entirely, something which is a bit of a novelty really.

And yes you can hear the effort that went into the music itself regardless if it’s a tape, a CD, a record or an mp3.

Still, music is art and personally I prefer art that comes wrapped up in other art to an art file sitting on my hard drive. I’m not sure if this antequated, I’d rather say it’s a matter of personality.

As a matter of fact, I find it quite hard to develop a feeling of “value” when it comes to mp3s, and thus I find it difficult to pay for them even if they cost less than a record (or a CD if shit comes to bust :wink:).

Again, of course every label is free in its distribution policy and for some it makes more sense to go that way than for others. Labels targeting 20-year-olds might founder should they start to release on vinyl. I was only referring to the labels in the minimal wave scene.

And now: Schlagstrom!!  :wink: