Written by:	BitterCOld
Published:	March 13, 2015

So the new Enslaved, In Times, was finally released in North America today. (Well, was today when I started writing this). Hooray.

Being, quite possibly, the site's biggest Enslaved fan (hey, I was sporting Frost as a user icon back before any of their albums had 40 votes/ratings? In Times, just out, already has 70 votes of 9+), and someone who believes in supporting bands, I wanted to do the right thing and acquire a copy today.

Long ago I wrote a piece on supporting artists, piracy, and the industry's absurd reactions to the issue. A focus was on how delays in drop times (i.e. Europe got In Times four days earlier than those in the West, but often the gaps are significantly longer) encourage piracy for the current Veruca Salt "I want it NOW" generation.

I even included this little nugget:

"Do something to make your fucking music available in the interim. Put it up on iTunes. Put it up on Spotify. Make it available for (PAID) download straight from both the band and label sites."

And in addition to being a huge Enslaved fan, I'm also a huge fan of Douglas Adams's "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" trilogy. And thus, I dub my efforts to acquire In Times, "A day in the life of Arthur Dent

Quote:
"But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you? I mean like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the plans were on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a torch."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard."

When North American release day hit, I furiously pounded my keyboard to order myself a copy.

Now living in Paraguay, I had my heart set on a digital copy. Sure, with my shit WiFi connection it'd take most of my lunch hour to download, but was still my preference for a multitude of reasons. Aside from immediate (well, relatively immediate) gratification, there is the lack of Paraguayan mail service. I've lived here eight months and received my cell phone bill exactly once. Of the 30 Norteamericanos or so that work with Mrs Cold, exactly ONE has received mail directly from the US (or Canada) to their casa here. (Fun fact: It was from the IRS? go figure.) So the odds of a CD making it to my door between now and Ragnarok are longer than the odds of Paraguay winning the gold in Women's Ice Hockey come the next Winter Olympics. I could have it delivered to an address in Florida, then to PY via her employer's courier service. It's reliable. And would cost me about as much as the album itself.

Additionally, the only thing less existent than the reliability of Paraguayan mail is CD/DVD ROM drives on new laptops. We each bought one before the big move? neither has a CD drive. The industry is phasing them out. Just more increasingly irrelevant moveable parts to take up space and cause problems while the market pushes for increasingly slim devices. It's all digital these days.

So a CD is about as useful in my current situation as a Finnish-to-Korean phrase dictionary?

After logging in to Nuclear Blast USA, I quickly look up Enslaved, and it's all there, ready to go? in CD-Digi; double vinyl silver; double vinyl black.

Great.

I must confess, having checked the site in advance, feared this would be the case. While I can pre-order a digital copy of the upcoming Minsk via their bandcamp page, I noticed no such pre-order option at NB USA. I created an account to just inquire. No response. I attempted to message whoever runs the Enslaved Facebook page to see if it would be an option. Again. No response.

Come the day of release I even tweeted label and band, figuring that might get a response.

Again. Nothing.

Quote:

"But the MP3's were on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to Germany to find them."
"That's the download department."
"With a translated page."
?
"But look, you found the download option, didn't you?"
"Yes," said BC, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a separate section entirely nowhere near the rest of the purchase option page, with a pop-up ad saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."

Finally, after scanning Facebook again, one of their posts, in the "see more" option has a link to a digital download option. Not on their NB USA or Norteamericano page, mind you. On the German site. You know, the first place Yanks and Canucks are bound to look. But, I guess, they had one.

But not on the same page as the other purchase options, either, mind you. In an entirely different section of the website altogether, one not linked to the primary band page.

But the stupidity did not end there. Oh no!

Not only was my Nuclear Blast USA account not recognized on the Nuclear Blast Deustchland/EU site, requiring me to create a second account, for the same label? but whomever was responsible for pricing should be immediately sacked. See if YOU can spot the issue:

Enslaved - In Times - $9.99
1. Thurisaz Dreaming - $0.99
2. Building With Fire - $0.99
3. One Thousand Years of Rain - $0.99
4. Nauthir Bleeding - $0.99
5. In Times - $0.99
6. Daylight - $0.99

You save a full 40% off the price just buying the freaking album track by track. I get the logic in single song pricing for the radio/club hit for Miley Perry or whoever, or on something like a Ramones comp with 28 songs on it? but maybe you might want to rethink that model for bands that make albums with fewer, but longer, songs.

Truth be told, though, my degree is neither in math nor economics, so maybe I got something wrong?

Quote:
"But you must realise that you can't lie in front of the bulldozers indefinitely!"

"I'm game. We'll see who rusts first."

The point of this eruption is not some twat whining because they can't get what they want and get it now.

Truth is, I already have it. Via means the band might not like. I just happen to be a huge fan of the band, one who owns(owned) all their prior works, has seen them each time they came to my prior home of Arizona, including a 270mi/400+km round trip on a work night to catch the Ruun tour, and have the shirts to show for it. Thanks to that whole "Downloading a Sheep" thing, I understand and appreciate the band's stance on illegal downloading. I wanted to do right by them and GIVE THEM MY FUCKING MONEY.

I am just trying to illustrate how incompetent labels are at adapting to their mortal enemy.




It should not be this difficult.

If a huge fanboi jumps through a Tough Mudder's worth of fiery hoops and hurdles to attempt purchase the album, in the preferred medium, legally, do you think the majority of first world Veruca Salts' will? (Excluding you third world lot, I appreciate your situation entirely and first-hand.)

Labels and bands can work together to ensure loyal customers who want to purchase products should have it as easy as possible to fork over their Euros/Dollars/Loonies/Guarani to do so. There is absolutely zero reason the legal, PAY download option should be cloistered in to a side alley of only one continent's branch/site. It should be right. fucking. there. alongside the vinyl and CD versions. (Not even going off on the pricing thing again? my right eyelid is still twitching. #L2Math ffs.)

They can choose to adapt to the new environment - it seems many have. (See above: Minsk, on Relapse Records, and their bandcamp page.)

Or they can choose not to.

Let's see who rusts first.