I find myself waiting for Otto to chime in here (the man has a doctorate in issues relating to supply and demand after all). But I don't want to put him on the spot. ;) So here's my humble opinion:
Unfortunately, this may be the result of fallout from the heavyhanded tactics of the record industry. Let me try to clarify. Underground Artist X forms a label and minimizes supply as an artistic statement or business decision (whichever, does not matter). Greedy Fan Y decides to cash in on higher demand by bootlegging. Greedy Fan Y is breaking the law. Y could have asked for licensing rights and given a cut back to artist X. But artist X will not do business with Y, in part because of a complete mistrust fostered by the record industry's history of ripping off artists. This is the pure (albeit ugly) nature of free markets, no? Survival of the opportunist? I am NOT condoning bootlegging. The piece that's missing is the free flow of information from the willing buyer to the copyright owner. This is what a lot of artists are trying to figure out lately. Of course I am not taking into account the economics of vinyl production and single copy distribution. Final thoughts: If that pre-order deepchord CD was available from their site, I'd order now. I am about to own a legit copy of Beltran's "10 Days of Blue" after waiting 6 years to hear it. -- im
