Waxing on Sleater-Kinney
February 17th, 2005
cata-wha?
Andy Baio’s take ( “your biggest fans are pirating it because there’s no legal alternative” ) on Sleater-Kinney’s request that their fans not download their new album kind of misses the point. It isn’t that there is no legal alternative - it’s that it hasn’t been released yet! I am sure there will be legal digital distribution options when the record is released on May 24th.
Do fans have the right to have pre-release access, then?
A label needs to coordinate for months to pull together a perfect storm of press, publicity, advertising, tour schedules and more. So, I sympathize with the band, having run an indie label for years, and having seen the releases show up on file trading networks. I think the band poses a valid point about wanting to control how their art is distributed.
I think they have a right to be very frustrated with the fact that the record was leaked, though a bit naive to think that it wouldn’t be. They sound a little scared (and I don’t blame them), but I would be surprised if this would impact their livelihood.
Take the recent Bright Eyes records. They were leaked two or three months ahead of release as well. What happened? They debuted at #10 and #15
on the Billboard charts. Great Destroyer, by Low, was also leaked well in advance, and seems to be doing very well, too. Labels are going to have to come up with a creative solution to this problem - and not the superglued mini-disk option (who pulled that bonehead idea?).
I really don’t know if leaked records hurt or help the artist or label any more than good or bad advance press you have to admit, it is a pain in the ass.
