HW: Promoting space rock (was Re: HW: Star Nation cancelled)

[Paul Mather]

ANDREW GARIBALDI wrote:

> OK - this is going to be a plug but I have to nip this in the bud before CD
> pirates start to zoom up.
> The CD-R is  a limited edition of 50 copies only and the remaining 47 are
> being sold by CD Services Mail Order. They are hand-painted original artwork
> by Richard, autographed by the group, and won't be repressed once they have
> gone. They were only manufactured for the USA dates, but Jerry told me today
> that they have been cancelled.

With all the recent talk of "supporting the space rock scene," and how
we should do everything to widen its audience and help it grow, is it
just me, or does limiting a release to only 50 CD-Rs do *ANYTHING*
towards that end?  How does this bring space rock to the masses?

Sure, the people who happen to be subscribed to and reading this group
who happen to see the announcement of this material for sale (or who are
CDS subscribers now) may get a chance to get one of the remaining 47
copies, and will probably enjoy them very much, but the rest (including
space rock fans yet-to-be) are pretty much SOL.

IMHO, this kind of thing smacks of elitism, and plays right into the
hands of the pirates.  I can understand making the hand-painted, signed
edition a very limited run, but not making the music available in a
"normal" form (assuming there is a demand) is not going to encourage it
to be heard beyond a tiny clique.

Is this about the music, or about Kollecting?

Cheers,

Paul.

PS: It comes to something when we speak of "repressing" CD-Rs.  Let's
hope the paint is kind to the CD-R label, or else pretty soon you'll
have 50 circular paintings and little else... :-)

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa