Marathonpacks is a music criticism blog written by Eric Harvey. He writes a column for Pitchfork titled Silent Party, and also reviews records for them on occasion. Today he made an interesting post about his part in a new method of selling records online.
The record label Asthmatic Kitty has adopted a "post-In Rainbows" record pricing strategy based on Pitchfork's rating system. An album by Granmpall Jookabox just received a 5.4 from Mr. Harvey, and thusly Asthmatic Kitty will sell the album online with a pricetag of $5.40 for 54 hours.
In the past one could have said that a band's financial success would be very influenced by coverage on Pitchfork, but this is taking it way too far. Although the sale price is temporary, it is still abominable. With this marketing plan, Pitchfork's rating defines the value of the artifact for sale. I can't believe the band agreed to this, it's pretty nightmarish.
Monday, December 8, 2008
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Read the comments on that post (their A&R guy speaks out). W-H-E-W!
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, Bitchpork (probably the easiest website to hate/love ever) has a big pull on the fate of a record. Most people will tell you about what happened to Travis Morrison post-Dismemberment Plan. The Fork gave mad love to the Plan, and I definitely wouldn't have ever found that band if it weren't for their recommendation of Emergency & I, a record I still kinda like after 3,000 listens or so. Check out their review of "Travistan" if you haven't before; apparently, some stores flat out refused to carry that record. Not because they had heard the record, but because of the Fork's review. Mr. Morrison is now basically an infamous black sheep.
ReplyDeleteBut for my two cents, he did do some pretty interesting songs post- D-Plan like Checkers and Chess. Pretty funny song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amQuwVgq9Mk&feature=related
ReplyDelete