Exciting! And then sneaky.
Author: erics
Howdy, WordPress. Today I am pleased to report that I got my Don Hertzfeldt DVDs in the mail! Hooray! And now I will use Don Hertzfeldt’s website, bitterfilms.com, as a corollary in my demonstration of why iTunes and Amazon suck.
Don Hertzfeldt, first of all, is one of my favorite animators. And he operates in a manner very similar to the one we use–that is to say, he only sells his animation through his own website. No iTunes, no Amazon, no nothin’. And here’s why independent artists should do that:
1) iTunes takes half the profit whenever they sell anything. HALF! And they operate entirely digitally! It’s not like they have some enormous iTunes warehouse where they have to keep stuff. All it requires is memory. And computer memory is practically free these days. So how is it fair that the place that stores stuff and the people who Make the Stuff get the same amount? Answer: it is not fair.
2) Amazon… Well, here’s a story about Amazon. My friend Adam Marsland released his album Go West (which I played on) simultaneously on his own website and on Amazon.com. When Amazon found out how many people were buying the album through Adam’s website, they immediately dropped the price of his album by three dollars, and then five! Just so people would buy it through their site (where he gets less of the money and they get more of it) and not his (where he gets all the money and they get none)! That is some sneaky, underhanded shit.
THAT is why we’re not selling our stuff through websites like that anymore. And I’m pretty sure neither of those sites even have the courtesy to buy you a drink laced with rohypnol before they do what they do.
–Eric
Posted in Blogs and other silly nonsense
Good call. Unless those sites are advertising your music, they’re not earning their keep.
Exactly! It’s sorta like a promoter whose job it is to get uppity about a band’s “draw”… After not having done any promotion for the show.
“So, let me get this straight: Your job title is ‘promoter.’”
“Yup.”
“But you don’t, in fact, do any promoting of any kind.”
“That’s right.”
“And you get to keep alllll the door and bar money.”
“Yup.”
“OK, just so’s we’re clear.”