HW: Official Post From Hawkwind.

[Doug Pearson]

On Wed, 11 Dec 2002 12:54:33 EDT, Ted Jackson <tojackso at LIBRARY.SYR.EDU>
wrote:
>Well, the Grateful Dead never made ANY new CDS, and they were the highest-
>earning band in the world at the time of Jerry's death.  I'll repeat it
>again for the folks
>in the back benches:  BANDS DON'T MAKE DIDDLY FROM RECORD SALES!!

While this is normally the case (99% of all bands except for those who
regularly sell multi-platinum), the Voiceprint business model actually
*does* seem to pay the bands on the label well (and in Hawkwind's case,
there's even more net profit, since most of the Hawk/Voiceprint releases
consist of existing tapes, not new recordings).  Of course, they make up
for this by being somewhat weaker than major labels (even major
subsidiaries like CMC) when it comes to promotion and distribution.

Which brings up the next point ...

There's NO WAY that "forbidding" the making & trading of live recordings is
going to help the band get a major label contract as long as the band
*themselves* are still selling tons of competing material via Voiceprint!
(Unless, perhaps, 'Canterbury 2001' is to be the last Voiceprint release.)
I stand by my firm belief that the only chance they have to get a major
label contract is to pony up the cash to that guy with the same first name
as me (although I'd certainly love to be proven wrong).

My best guess, however, is probably seriously-wishful thinking:
Perhaps they're about to (finally!) start performing material from the
upcoming album, and don't want to new material to be distributed until the
album actually comes out.  If that is, indeed the reason, I *can*
sympathize with that, since the reason is on artistic, rather than economic
grounds.

However, that still doesn't change the fact that audience recording/trading
is the only way I can get a copy of the 'Yule Ritual' show that I can stand
to listen to the bass guitar on.

    -Doug (who saw the message title and was hoping for good news about
Dave/Nik burying hatched & stopping the lawsuits ... alas!)
     jasret at mindspring.com