Hello, I buy regularly from iTunes + Bleep.com.
Something recent which I've bought from iTunes was the Audion LP. From Bleep, a track from the 'My Sol Dark Direction' LP. For me, it's usually about either sampling the wares before I buy it in a 'hard' format. I did go on to get the Audion LP on vinyl and I will do that with the Suburban Knight LP too. What I've heard from small label owners who either are involved in digital distribution or are contemplating it, is that it's a tricky market to get right. Major benefit: digital offers the benefit compared to vinyl or CD of tiny overheads - assuming you only need to either boost your infrastructure (i.e. increased server space/capacity, etc) or maybe you don't even have to upgrade your systems at all. But major downside: to make it profitable, you have to spend that much on marketing and advertising, that those savings can be cancelled out, and it's possible that such ventures end up not being worth it in the end - meaning that you might as well bite the bullet and go for a hard format in the first place, because digital isn't really a easier option. There is also the idea that with our kind of music in particular, there is a prestige value that goes with vinyl. Digital downloads do reek of 'cheap' no matter how good the quality. It's a consideration when a big 'capital' involved in independent label music is the value which buyers/peers/industry ascribes to the label: whether you want to call it 'cred', 'goodwill', 'quality' or whatever. Just some thoughts of others which I've picked up. I tend to agree but I'm not the best informed. Ken -----Original Message----- From: Jason Brunton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 18 August 2006 08:38 To: 313 Subject: (313) Digital Downloads Alright peepz- a quick question for the more tech-savvy minded amongst you: How many people actually buy digital download music whether from more mainstream portals like I-tunes or more specialist ones like Bleep.com?? I've spoken to quite a few label owners (all of them from smaller independant labels) but nobody seems to be making much income from it- any thoughts on the the current, and future, state of the format? I can't actually imagine ever paying £1 for a track in a less than perfect format and albums seem pretty expensive when you compare them to a normal CD which has cover art etc- I'm not totally against the idea but it's not really doing it for me at the moment. What chall think? cheers Jason
