Today, the Matches' new album, A Band in Hope, leaked, over a month prior to its release date. The band handled it really well, with one of the classiest messages I have ever read:
By chance, today marks the official unofficial CD release party of our new album A Band In Hope! It has leaked. The tiger is out of the ziplock.
How may you make payment to the musicians who created it? Glad you wondered.
When you download or rip the album, do something nice for a stranger. Give a dollar to one.org. Jumpstart a car. Give a rose to an old woman eating alone. Leave an open ended love letter in someone’s shoe at the gym. But actually, those examples are not as great as the ones you will come up with! Take a video of it on your camera or cameraphone or if you don’t have that, take a photo, or draw a picture, and send it to us (or yousendit.com it if it’s a big file) to us at abandinhopepayment@gmail.com
Of course, when March 18th rolls around, it’s still hugely helpful to us if you buy the record. Yet we only ask that you purchase it if you love it and/or want to/ have the means to support us. By all means, download it first! Eagerly awaiting brilliant directorial debuts of good karma stirring.
Seriously -- how cool is that? I really love the way they took it in stride, accepted that people were going to download it, and turned a negative into a positive. I mean, album leaks are pretty much the standard these days, so why act like petulant children over it? There are obviously a bunch of issues with how things are done these days and it seems nothing can stop an album from leaking.
And this brings me to something I was talking about just last night. Why do labels still adhere to the old rules of release schedules, when clearly, the game has changed so much in the past decade?
Especially when it comes to punk, emo, hardcore, metal, and all associated genres, there isn't really that great of a need for advertising, right? Most of us know about the bands we like because of strong Internet communities and the fact that we actually have vague communication with the bands themselves via sites like MySpace. I'm pretty sure that anyone who would buy the new album from the Matches in March is already well aware of said album -- so why hold it back? Just release it when it's done. That way, you satiate the super fans who just want your album -- and don't want to wait. With this plan, the labels would ultimately end up removing almost all of the motivation for downloading a leaked album, which is simply, "I want it, and I can have it now, rather than in a month or two."
The rules have changed! You can still advertise and promote the album to a wider audience after catering to the core fans with a sped up release. Do first-week sales really matter that much? Why not enter the charts at #50 and then work your way up through word of mouth from the fans who bought it, as well as new fans you convert in the same time period you would have used based upon the initial release date?
I don't really see much of a flaw in my logic here, if I may say so myself. I know the CDs usually leak in the printing plants, but if the labels could get the product into the store around the same time as the leak, rather than sitting on the album because of a date that was set for it? I can't help but think it would increase sales, rather than harm them.
I know the record labels are still struggling with the new way things work... the inevitable leaks, downloading, and all associated woes. But I'm not sure they're thinking all that creatively, because the old way of doing business is so ingrained in their heads.
Here's what it comes down to:
We, the fans, know when a band is in the studio these days. They tell us, they shoot videos, and post updates while in there. As such, we also know when they're done with the album.
We, the fans, want that album as soon as humanly possible. The Matches' fans want their album now, rather than in March. Hence, people will download it for free to satiate that want. After all, it's there. Now. Why not just give the fans what they want, or at least, take a chance on it -- and see if that doesn't increase sales quite a bit, across the board?
Either way, I have a new respect for the Matches simply for coming off like all-around cool, chill guys, even though they probably aren't all that thrilled their album is floating around there over a month before they expected it to.
