Star Nation

[ANDREW GARIBALDI]

Hi,
Now I understand what you're saying but you're missing the point.
First, the Star Nation CD. This is not about exploitation or collecting or anything like that. The band, quite reasonably, thought that they were to do some work in the USA and, in the time they had, got together the CD's for sale or promotion, but mainly sale, to get some music out there. For whatever reason, the USA thing ain't happening and they're back with the CD's and all they want to do is recoup their costs as swiftly and easily as possible, hence easier to sell all to a dealer than play about with mail order, etc (not everyone can accept credit cards - the rstrictions on UK people accepting credit cards seem one hell of a lot tighter in the UK than in the USA), so they asked us, and we are happy to  help. Sure, CDS have to make some profit, but - hey - that's business.
Now, I imagine that, if the band is a serious project, then they will want to 'spread the word' with a proper album done in proper studio conditions with the necessary time taken to get it all righrt and then find a label to promote it - that way they will then be spreading the word to the masses. If the project is not that serious, then they will just do these CD's, call it a day and move on - for that someone will have to ask the band. What happens when the 50 are gone, is, I presume, not something that the band are worrying about at this stage. Of course with all this commotion, the band may end up not selling the things at all at this rate, so don't make too much noise - they might hear you.
Now here I'm not speaking on behalf of any musician, but I don't think a lot of you out there realise just how little SPARE money a lot of your favourite musicians have available (and we're talking a much wider musical arena than space-rock I can tell you), so that spending money on the time and mechanics and the materials of doing things like this , can be a challenge for those who don't have the resources, In Spacehead's case, Dibs has done the CD-R advance of the new one, certainly to get the music around, but also to make some money while waiting for my (or any) label to try and find some money to cough up to take them to a studio to get the new album as decent sounding as possible, and I only run the label as a side project, etc, etc.

Musicians have to live, eat and pay the bills like the rest of us, and with so few REAL labels taking any interest in  such music that's specialist anymore, it's becoming incresingly harder to do this, and with things like napster threatening to
undermine the very fabric of the music industry that supports the bands such a s Spacehead, Hawkwind, Star Nation and the like, then things may only get harder and harder until eventually there's no quality left.
Debate anyone?????
Sorry to ramble on so long, ands I DO understand what you're saying.
Andy Garibaldi
P.S. Anyone who's e.mailed me over Star Nation will each get a personal reply within two days. It's how I do things!
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With all the recent talk of "supporting the space rock scene," and how
we should do everything to widen its audience and help it grow, is it
just me, or does limiting a release to only 50 CD-Rs do *ANYTHING*
towards that end?  How does this bring space rock to the masses?

Sure, the people who happen to be subscribed to and reading this group
who happen to see the announcement of this material for sale (or who are
CDS subscribers now) may get a chance to get one of the remaining 47
copies, and will probably enjoy them very much, but the rest (including
space rock fans yet-to-be) are pretty much SOL.

IMHO, this kind of thing smacks of elitism, and plays right into the
hands of the pirates.  I can understand making the hand-painted, signed
edition a very limited run, but not making the music available in a
"normal" form (assuming there is a demand) is not going to encourage it
to be heard beyond a tiny clique.

Is this about the music, or about Kollecting?

Cheers,

Paul.

PS: It comes to something when we speak of "repressing" CD-Rs.  Let's
hope the paint is kind to the CD-R label, or else pretty soon you'll
have 50 circular paintings and little else... :-)

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu


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