Downloading On This Blog
I was recently contacted personally by some artists who have their music for download on this blog. They were happy to see a blog dedicated to their music, however, they expressed concerns over having their music up for download. Many artists don't have day jobs and depend on sales of their albums for their livelyhood.
I have taken down certain albums per the requests of a few artists, and many more may be taken down in the future if other artists contact me. I started this blog as a means for getting this great music out there, not to scam artists out of the money that they deserve. Downloadable music has always been a controversial topic. Many see a downloaded album as a potentially lost sale, but I don't think things work that simply. I think in the case of a lot of music (especially music that is independently distributed) that a downloaded album could mean reaching new fans who otherwise would be unwilling to give an artist a chance without downloading their album first.
The music climate is changing and I would encourage artists who think they are losing sales from downloads to reconsider that thought. With that said, it is not my place to decide how music is distributed when it isn't mine. If you are an artist and you want any music of yours taken off of this site, contact me and I will take it down ASAP. Any albums I do not recieve complaints for will remain up.
As readers of this blog, consider it your responsibility to buy as much music from the artists you like. They depend on it! I do understand that a lot of this music is out of print, which is one of the reasons I started this blog in the first place. I also understand that a lot of this music is only availiable as imports, which can be ridiculously expensive too. But please, do what you can when it comes to supporting these artists. This blog shows that there is a high demand for this music outside of New Zealand and maybe that'll encourge labels like Flying Nun who have a significant portion of their back catalog deleted to consider re-issuing some of this great material.
Here are websites where you can buy New Zealand music:
www.midheaven.com
www.siltbreeze.com
www.amazon.com
www.realgroovy.co.nz
www.smokecds.com
www.amplifier.co.nz
www.marbecks.co.nz
www.soundsnz.com
4 comments:
Thanks for all this great music. After grabbing the FN guitar-pop I have on worn-out vinyl I then moved on to the 'noisier' stuff I wasn't sure about - I now know that Galbraith, the Dead C et al were making the records I should have been buying instead of all the US/UK stuff I bought at the time and quickly got bored with (Doh!). Having the downloads wouldn't stop me buying a single one if it was re-issued - I'll be buying what I can find on cd but what I'd really like is to have this stuff on vinyl: certainly no lost sales here. Thanks again.
Just a note for you and the band members happening to be browsing.. this was a really incredible music scene, but there's a lot of music to sift through and i need to listen to it before I buy it. I've already bought a couple that I've heard on this site (Dead C and Tall Dwarves) but most are obscure and difficult to locate. I'll check out the links provided and purchase the stuff I like! Thank you for making so much wonderful music!
I'm thanking you right now for putting this stuff out there.....i own a LOT of NZ music, but i live in the states and frankly some of this stuff was pretty hard to get ahold of. Music fans like myself are thrilled to find sites like this, because we've invested hard money buying product, and talking up the great things we've stumbled onto.....far from taking money out of any artist's pocket, you've simply refired my interest in tracking down more of this music. Artists.....understand this.....blogs like this are the 45 RPM listening booths of old, AND the FM radio that doesn't even exist anymore for most of us. If it wasn't for music blogs, i probably would have no idea what's going on out there, and my life would be poorer for it.
As somebody who grew up with this stuff - and then travelled across the globe, I gave my record collection to deserving others because I couldn't take it with me. I now live on the other side of the world and yet still come across people who love this stuff but can't get it.
Artists such as TKP, Headless Chickens, Skeptics, The Gordons, The Builders, NRA and a bunch more are still the music I love most but I can't get hold of most of it.
If FN in particular were smart they would simply set up their own pay download service or simply reissue the bloody things.
In the meantime - well done you for making sure these mostly deleted items do not simply pass into obscurity.
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