Lately I've been wondering about international album releases and the music industry's grip on outdated business models. Now that the record biz is largely an online enterprise and albums are reduced to electronic files, shouldn't new releases be available everywhere at once? I've actually been in awe of a few of my music transactions this last year - GONE are the days of blowing a whole paycheck on small run import CDs that will never see an "official" US release! (Oh who am I kidding, I'd still dish out $30-45 each for those imported Coil records on heavyweight pearlescent vinyl! But I'd do it because I truly appreciated the medium, not because it was my only hope of seeing so few for sale, so far from home...)
For example: Just yesterday I reported that Lykke Li is releasing her debut album in the US for the first time and it got me thinking. Are there really Lykke Li fans out there, in the US, who have been pining to own her album Youth Novels? (It was released in the UK months ago.) I figure if someone wanted it, they would simply order it online. Yes?
I felt this way about Dizzee Rascal's album Maths + English too, when it was re-released in the US after being available in the UK for a whole year prior. By the time it was officially out on american soil, I had already listened to most of the album and owned a few tracks on disc. It's nice that Def Jux and El-P threw in some bonus tracks, to balance the other 10 tunes that'd been on the radio and in clubs for a year.
And again, when Estelle's album rolled into digital music stores on UK web domains, I was ready to pounce! I had waited long enough for Shine to be mine; so I could rewind her magnificent voice and smooth rhythms all night long. I could have waited the extra month for it to be "officially" released in the US, but instead I jumped over to 7Digital and downloaded it immediately. It was a breeze too, so easy and free of restrictions, borders and the extra wait.
Has the internet dissolved the concept of regional releases entirely? Do you feel limited by your locale when it comes to getting the hot new music you crave?
And if so, why are labels still doing business this way? I suppose it must have a lot to do with music charts - the tally of how many copies of a given album sold locally during its 1st week out. But those stats are skewed already, if music fans like me are purchasing downloads in other countries before having access at home.
So my question to you is this: Do you wait for an album to reach your pocket of the world before you buy? Or do you take advantage of the global village we share online? How has this one aspect of the music biz affected you?
My Trusted MOGs
I usually wait, but I have ordered imports online like on BMG music if it's available. I just ordered Venom's import of Black Metal not to long ago.
My Trusted MOGs
BTW the tune called Die Hard, but you probably figured that out.
;)
My Trusted MOGs
One reason this happens is that different labels and distributors represent artists in different territories. The one in the US may have a full slate of Spring releases so they hold off on something that's out in the UK until summer or fall. Another reason is touring -- even in this age of dwindling record sales, one of the best promotional tools artists/labels have is getting out on the road to support the release of the album. Planning touring within countries is complex, and once you launch an international tour things get really complicated. Trying to maximize band exposure at festivals can also make for delays. That might be another consideration in terms of when to "release" an album in a certain territory.
My Trusted MOGs
I'm interested in the Czech/Dutch Bluegrass band, "Waterflow," but I'd have to fly well over several borders with a fistful of Euros to buy their current CD release. (There's always MySpace and per-track buys, but I prefer a hard copy.) I wonder if Borders can pierce the Euro curtain when Amazon doesn't have an accurate listing? Oh well, I can just as well wait to see if the current version of the "Hawaiian Style Band" will release a CD sometime in the near future...
My Trusted MOGs
It has been incredibly helpful to both listeners and artists to have the Internet to facilitate access to music. We're a world now of instant access and rapid spread of information -- who wants to wait months for a US release that's available elsewhere? Then there are the foreign releases by American artists that never even get released here. Labels are slowly figuring this out, though, and are starting to entice buyers with bonus tracks available only in particular markets or from particular vendors.
My Trusted MOGs
I listen to mostly indie rock music. Not many people in Greece listen to this type of music, so you can see how most of the albums I crave don't get here at all or on time (whatever time that may be). But on the other hand, ordering all the stuff I want that are not here/not here on time would cost me a fortune. You do the border math :(
My Trusted MOGs
Anna - that's the situation I have too. I like a lot of UK and Euro music that never gets released in the US.
so i either spent a lot of money on shipping or a lot of time crate digging the used and import sections. i like that i have immediate access to so much music from around the world now, but sometimes it feels like i'm just more aware of what i'm missing out on (as far as the physical records and CDs available elsewhere).
the net has its pros and cons both, to be sure!
My Trusted MOGs
like books, music is a tangible commodity, regardless of format or location. If you have to have the information/sounds, you (or at least I :) will move mountains, pay exorbitant fees, wait almost hopelessly for the mailperson to arrive, dance a jig when it hits... There's only so much one can listen to and I mean LISTEN to in a lifetime, so much one can spend, so many pages one can read in a day... umm, yes, though I am pre-internet mailorder-type gotta have my fix kind of consumer - the internet just furthers the addiction and forces honing of choice.
My Trusted MOGs
molli, thanks for this lovely post. i am also at a terribly disadvantaged location - the internet made the world smaller but not homogenous (thankfully). one good example is that online shopping presupposes a credit card (almost entirely if outside the US) and many will be surprised to know that in certain countries a credit card is not a given currency. thus, both in the Philippines and Cambodia, not only do many releases never physically reach our soil, we also still don't have the currency to buy them even in the easiest ways.
My Trusted MOGs
wow PoeBG! i had never considered that before. is paypal an option for buying records online from Cambodia/Philippines? i use paypal for many of my online purchases, so i know it is a widely accepted route. i don't have a credit card, but i do have a bank card that works as a c.c. for most purposes, so i just assumed that banks in other countries offered something similar.
My Trusted MOGs
heya molli, sorry, i was unclear - both credit cards and bank/debit cards have been around in the Philippines for as long as they must've been in the US but they are not commonly used at all outside the office-working population. i read an AC Nielsen study that confirmed this, and citing it as a reason that online shopping couldn't take off in the country even as the internet is popular nationwide.
in Cambodia, well, they really are restarting from scratch. the ATM is still a big deal here in this day and age, i guess it's a matter of time, but like the Phils., people prefer to see cold hard cash exchanging hands and could not warm up to electronic payment.