Re: Antigravity CD

[phil mason <phil@ph...net>]

Kevin,
As far as I can tell, you are making two contradictory points about the 
worthiness of Antigravity being generally unavailable:
1) It's not about making money, because it's art
2) It's about making money, because the band don't earn anything from 
digital formats.

I don't find either argument very compelling because:
1) If we can't hear it, how would know whether it's art? And frankly, 
(Yes, there are valid theories as to why it could be art even if no-one 
consumes it -- trees fall in the forest when there's noone around to hear, 
after all --  but most of us are probably more interested in the music 
than the theory in this instance)
2) Neither are royalties from vinyl sales going to keep much food on 
anyone's tables.

Destroying the "commercial value" seems to me a good thing if we are just 
going down the road of making things valuable simply because of their 
scarcity - either in a monetary sense because the artefact commands 
inflated prices since demand exceeds supply, or in an aesthetic sense 
because the technically unnecessary rarity just makes the whole venture 
stink of exclusivism.  And that is in no way to suggest that musicians 
should not be getting paid for their work.

Gerard is entitled to his approach, but if fetishising the format (rather 
than celebrating the music) is genuinely the reason why next to nobody has 
heard Antigravity then it's certainly an unusual one. I wonder what the 
rest of the band members think of it. On the other hand, it seems more 
likely to me that he simply hasn't clinched a deal with a record label (do 
we still call them that?!) or distributor that he's happy with, and maybe 
the Planes have missed the boat.  

Phil

On 10 Sep 2011, at 14:07, kevin@co...eclipse.co.uk wrote:

> But what if it's not about making money? What if it's art?
> 
> What if it was available digitally, how many people would actually buy 
> it? How much would the band actually earn? Enough to eat for a year, a 
> month, a week? How many people would end up just stealing it or 
> listening on Spotify for which Gerard gets 0.00000000001p each listen. 
> It aint right. 
> 
> Digitalising music has destroyed its  commercial value and I applaud 
> Gerard for saying fuck that. If he's only going to get a pittance for a 
> digital version why bother. Vinyl makes it precious. To be treasured. 
> Yours. It sparks the imagination to wonder just how amazing the songs 
> are. It resurrects the thrill of the obscure album hunt. It might just 
> keep a record shop open for one more day.
> 
> Get your record players out and groove
> 
> 
> 
> Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "ed-ward_1@ti...co.uk" <ed-ward_1@ti...co.uk>
> Sender: blueplanes-bounces@bl...org
> Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:08:42 
> To: <blueplanes@bl...org>
> Reply-To: A Discussion list for The Blue Aeroplanes
>       <blueplanes@bl...org>
> Subject: [BluePlanes] Antigravity CD
> 
> Its hard to understand Gerard's marketing strategy,the vinyl edition 
> appears to great reviews and then silence no sign of a CD or download 
> version for those without turntables.Its almost a lets shoot ourselves 
> in the foot strategy.But then the Aeroplanes have always been 
> iunpredictable,I guess thats part of their charm.A sleeve note on  HUH 
> The Best of Blue Aeroplanes 87-92 sums it up in describing their 
> career:"It was brilliant,it was fun so enormous it swallowed the 
> horizon until it became work".Enough said,Edward
> 
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