sign o' the times...

grumpytrousers

Karl Hungus

Profound.

Latchy

He He

it's a sign of the times that the music charts are filled with a lot of dross now cpmpared to the the time when you had a crooner ,several pop bands ,3 rock bands,a few female pop singers, an instrumental or two and a ballader all in the top 20 , it gave a bit of diversity to the word ' popular ' .

murphaph

If the first word was Musical I'd be well impressed!

Bren_M.Records

"the way music is going" is a theme Iv been thinking about for some time now.
Iv come to the conclusion that Tesco's and Xtravision etc. are basically only giving the people what they want, so I say fair play to them to be honest.

We released the first album on our label about two months ago and we put a hell of alot of time and effort into getting it into the shops.
Did the whole PR thing, radio adverts of Phantom, the Tom Dunne show and Dan Hegary as well as working the online angle and we did lots of gigs up and down the country.

We released the album knowing full well that people who buy their music in the likes Tesco's etc. wouldnt be arsed with the type of album we released and wouldnt even know it was out anyway as we didnt have the budget to advertise during MTV Cribs or My Sweet Sixteen!

What we did kinda think though was that that the 10% or so of Irish people who are actually into music would maybe take a chance and check the album out.
If even a small percentage of those who checked it out bought the album we would probably have broken even financially, which we would have been delighted with.
As it happened the album tanked and we lost alot of money on the project.
These thing happen, such is life.

What it did show me though is that at least with the Tesco's/MTV mob you know what your getting.
It does exactly what it says on the tin so to speak.
The ones Id be more cynical about now are those who claim to be into "indie bands" (indie in this case meaning bands who wouldnt generally be considered mainstream musically) and who say they like to find new music.

Now before I get rounded on by people on this thread........Im not pointing the finger at anyone here and this isnt a reaction simply to this thread, its something Iv concluded over a period of time and this thread just seems to be relevent to the topic.
And yes, I am bitter!

btw our local Xtravision stocked the album for us even though usually they only do a national release or nothing at all.
Of course they did it for financial reasons as it would sell well locally but it did end up being a great help to us.

grumpytrousers

i think my problem with tesco selling albums is that, well, record shops are just plain GOOD for you. Jesus - even if you start off liking crap music, there can be a chance that you'll be exposed to something mildly different and hopefully better. That maybe something with an interesting cover will have your curiousity piqued.

I mean, i'll grant you the crossover won't be huge, and whilst there's at least a slight chance of say, a BeeGees fan picking up something by Captain Beefheart, the odds on our same BeeGees fan going near the metal/hardcore dance/jazz section is fairly slim, but still - it's better than nothing.

With the tesco approach - and to an extent online as well - the whole thing of browsing is gone; the serendipity of just picking up something on a whim and saying 'sod it, i read about this, i'll give it a lash'; Tesco will hardly be carrying the albums that warrant one 'giving it a lash'.

Hey - i'm an old fart and longing for halcyon days we'll never see again; the days of even big record stores carrying anything even approximating towards a 'deep catalogue' are long gone, and oodles of floorspace has now gone to the more profitable DVD/console market (tho' the music industry still blames piracy - go figure, huh!).

Still, one can dream...and i do genuinely think that the photo i put there is kinda sad...

mike65

Hey - i'm an old fart and longing for halcyon days we'll never see again; the days of even big record stores carrying anything even approximating towards a 'deep catalogue' are long gone, and oodles of floorspace has now gone to the more profitable DVD/console market (tho' the music industry still blames piracy - go figure, huh!).

I hav'nt set foot an an actual "shoppe" to buy music in about a decade. The last time I had a really good buying/browing experience was in the early 90s in Dublin - Sound Cellar and Virgin mainly. Where I bought stuff like the first 4 Spirit albums and Love.

Now its online and I'd never even think to try elsewhere. And I bet the Virgin Megastore if it still exists, does'nt stock any "west coast psychodelia"

Mike.

BaZmO*

Bren_M.Records wrote: »

The ones Id be more cynical about now are those who claim to be into "indie bands" (indie in this case meaning bands who wouldnt generally be considered mainstream musically) and who say they like to find new music.

Don't get me started on that Indie thing. There was a time when the title was representative of the music but nowadays it's used to describe bands that are signed to majors.

grumpytrousers wrote: »

I mean, i'll grant you the crossover won't be huge, and whilst there's at least a slight chance of say, a BeeGees fan picking up something by Captain Beefheart, the odds on our same BeeGees fan going near the metal/hardcore dance/jazz section is fairly slim, but still - it's better than nothing.

With the tesco approach - and to an extent online as well - the whole thing of browsing is gone; the serendipity of just picking up something on a whim and saying 'sod it, i read about this, i'll give it a lash'; Tesco will hardly be carrying the albums that warrant one 'giving it a lash'.

Hey - i'm an old fart and longing for halcyon days we'll never see again; the days of even big record stores carrying anything even approximating towards a 'deep catalogue' are long gone, and oodles of floorspace has now gone to the more profitable DVD/console market (tho' the music industry still blames piracy - go figure, huh!).

Still, one can dream...and i do genuinely think that the photo i put there is kinda sad...

But the type of people that would buy music in Tesco are not the type of people that would generally frequent music shops.

grumpytrousers

BaZmO* wrote: »

But the type of people that would buy music in Tesco are not the type of people that would generally frequent music shops.

quite true; but if previously people had to go to a 'normal' record shop to only pick up, I dunno, Now 10 or the new Killers album, then the profit made on that (and there'd be a larger volume on the new releases) went to effectively subsidise the 'deep catalogue' the record shopts/megastores carried. Nowadays, of course, Tesco make all their money on volume so can stock loss-leaders and so sod all people are buying, for example, the new Killers album in a record shop, and so when it goes platinum in Ireland, a hell of a lot of those sales aren't going anywhere near a shop that *ever* stocked vinyl! Which is why these stores are feeling the pinch.

Mike65 - i see your point; your view is one identically held by a pal of mine who only buys online but i can't agree. The chances of random picking up something you'd never have thought you'd pick up doesn't happen online, or not in the same way...

As for why Virgin doesn't stock much west-coast psychedlia - maybe they just reckon that everybody who wants a copy of 'Forever Changes' now owns it!

Hmmm...i can see we're veering rather closely to the 'why would you want to buy in a shop when you can buy online' argument which isn't where i wanted to go, but hey...there we go!

Robbo

Isn't it sort of fitting that the chart CDs are in the same aisle as the bog roll?

mike65

Grumpy if I was in Dublin and could be arsed to slash and burn my way into the centre I might still spend the odd hour or so surfing the aisles but somehow I doubt it. Age is one thing, when you hit a certain number (lets call it 40) lurking in shops full of young things is unsettling other is sheer lazyness (see first sentence).

Supermarkets are easy to rail against what with thier DVD players, flat-pack bookcases and solar powered garden gnomes but, - nah I'll leave it at that.

Mike.

Bubs101

Yeah, The sod it , I read about this and I'll give it a lash style is integral to one's music tastes

grumpytrousers

mike65 wrote: »

Grumpy if I was in Dublin and could be arsed to slash and burn my way into the centre I might still spend the odd hour or so surfing the aisles but somehow I doubt it. Age is one thing, when you hit a certain number (lets call it 40) lurking in shops full of young things is unsettling other is sheer lazyness (see first sentence).

D'you wanna know the sad thing, mike? If you did bother yer arse heading into town, the shops don't carry as much as they did back in the day anyway; i spent 4 years working in London from 1999 to 2003 and certainly when i started there, you could nearly spend a day just wandering thru the big HMV or Virgin on Oxford St.

Fast Forward to 2007 and I was in the Virgin 'Megastore' in Liffey Valley a few weeks ago and noticed that you couldn't buy either Abbey Road or Sgt Pepper by the Beatles.

Didn't get the chance to look for any psychedelia, obv...:D

John

Out of the big name shops, Tower is the only one that has any sort of catalogue worth talking about. And it has a psychedelica section.

grumpytrousers

John wrote: »

Out of the big name shops, Tower is the only one that has any sort of catalogue worth talking about. And it has a psychedelica section.

and sadly, as i'm sure you're only too aware John, their flagship store in London is now a Virgin (on a par with liffey valley, only bigger!) and their US outfit is no more...how long for the other outfits operating under the Tower Records banner?

Outer Bongolia

The music shops are extremely limited in choice, there isn't a hope in hell of finding the most interesting stuff, internet saves the day.

John

grumpytrousers wrote: »

and sadly, as i'm sure you're only too aware John, their flagship store in London is now a Virgin (on a par with liffey valley, only bigger!) and their US outfit is no more...how long for the other outfits operating under the Tower Records banner?

Tower Records in Ireland was bought out by its staff, it's now a completely independent store from Tower Records that have gone under in the states. It was when Tower went bust in Europe that the staff decided to take over and keep it as a decent shop.

lordgoat

It is quite a decent store it has to be said. Prob the only place i'd wander through, granted Road/City Disks get a look too, and i buy tikcets from them.

grumpytrousers

John wrote: »

Tower Records in Ireland was bought out by its staff, it's now a completely independent store from Tower Records that have gone under in the states. It was when Tower went bust in Europe that the staff decided to take over and keep it as a decent shop.

really? fookin' hell, that's impressive. Genuinely didn't know that. More power to 'em! :cool:

kinaldo

ffs, this thread has nothing to do with the classic Prince album

ShawnRaven

Probably because Purple Rain wasn't in the title
VR!

slipss

Bren_M.Records wrote: »

"the way music is going" is a theme Iv been thinking about for some time now.
Iv come to the conclusion that Tesco's and Xtravision etc. are basically only giving the people what they want, so I say fair play to them to be honest.

We released the first album on our label about two months ago and we put a hell of alot of time and effort into getting it into the shops.
Did the whole PR thing, radio adverts of Phantom, the Tom Dunne show and Dan Hegary as well as working the online angle and we did lots of gigs up and down the country.

We released the album knowing full well that people who buy their music in the likes Tesco's etc. wouldnt be arsed with the type of album we released and wouldnt even know it was out anyway as we didnt have the budget to advertise during MTV Cribs or My Sweet Sixteen!

What we did kinda think though was that that the 10% or so of Irish people who are actually into music would maybe take a chance and check the album out.
If even a small percentage of those who checked it out bought the album we would probably have broken even financially, which we would have been delighted with.
As it happened the album tanked and we lost alot of money on the project.
These thing happen, such is life.

What it did show me though is that at least with the Tesco's/MTV mob you know what your getting.
It does exactly what it says on the tin so to speak.
The ones Id be more cynical about now are those who claim to be into "indie bands" (indie in this case meaning bands who wouldnt generally be considered mainstream musically) and who say they like to find new music.

Now before I get rounded on by people on this thread........Im not pointing the finger at anyone here and this isnt a reaction simply to this thread, its something Iv concluded over a period of time and this thread just seems to be relevent to the topic.
And yes, I am bitter!

btw our local Xtravision stocked the album for us even though usually they only do a national release or nothing at all.
Of course they did it for financial reasons as it would sell well locally but it did end up being a great help to us.

Or maybe your just really really really bad at the whole marketing thing, I mean you go to the trouble of typing out all that, even jokingly saying your bitter about the album not doing well and then you fail to even mention the name of the album or band in a thread which as I type has 323 views, sure its only 323 people but it would have taken you 2 seconds to include it.