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Digital Download stores "Sold Out/Limited Release"

Can someone please explain the logic behind this to me?

I understand limited releases of vinyl, collectors items and such, but why have a limited release for a digital download? It seems to be entirely counterproductive to not meet an obvious demand for a track...

I've waited for months to get Chris Lake - Changes, and because I was gone for two days and unable to check my email/djdownload.com I apparently missed the boat on a high quality copy of this track...

Can anyone explain this to me? Am I just missing some random record industry secret where they're actually making more money NOT selling a track?

ur kidding .... please tell me this is a joke, they wouldnt be that dumb ... would they?

Screw it, just illegally download it and say u bought it, they deserve it for their logic.

It's bad enough on vinyl, but its a digital copy! record companies, i ask u.

the only logical explanation i can think of is that they want to fulfil a certain quota of vinyl sales since there's more money to made in selling a vinyl than a digital download. still seems pretty stupid tho..

quote:

Originally posted by ���|E Screw it, just illegally download it and say u bought it, they deserve it for their logic.

See now here's where the problem is, TBH I probably would try and do this, BUT the odds of finding a 320kbps MP3 or **gasp** a WAV or FLAC is going to be near impossible...

And even if they wanted to fill a vinyl quota, I guess my assumption would be that they KNOW who they're going to sell vinyl to (I mean, the numbers have to be out there, sales trends and such) so my thinking would be that a well established label like Alternative Route would have a good idea how much vinyl they were going to sell regardless of a limited digital release. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I doubt vinyl sales would be that heavily affected...

And is it really that big of a difference in money made off vinyl v. dd's? I mean, the cost to produce an audio file has to be exceptionally minimal, so even after you pay licensing rights to the artist and take a chunk for the label and the dd store, I guess my thinking is the shear volume sold would make significantly more than these limited releases... But admittedly, I know absolutely nothing about the record industry, which is why I ask questions such as this...

No I don't think they make more off vinyl than DD. Vinyl isn't that cheap to produce. It's something the owner of the independent label I'm signed to has been researching and dealing with for years, and at this point in time it is actually cheaper to go straight DD as a label than to ever fuck around with vinyl.

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Originally posted by Zild No I don't think they make more off vinyl than DD. Vinyl isn't that cheap to produce. It's something the owner of the independent label I'm signed to has been researching and dealing with for years, and at this point in time it is actually cheaper to go straight DD as a label than to ever fuck around with vinyl.

This is exactly what I was thinking... which would also make "limited release" DD's absolutely pointless and counterproductive...

Does anyone have any idea what the other side of this argument might be? I'm really at a loss here, but for some reason feel that there must be a reason they do this... Unfortunately the only reason I can come up with can be summed up by the phrase "dick move."

It might be because some of the vinyl labels are trying to keep from going under right now.

quote:

Originally posted by Zild It might be because some of the vinyl labels are trying to keep from going under right now.

I guess, but wouldn't more revenue from DD's prevent some of that?

Unfortunately, I can already see this turning into a "Vinyl is dead" vs. "No it's not!" argument...

The thing with vinyl is you have to guarantee a certain amount of records will be sold for it to be cost effective. If you pay to cut the master that you can press 1000 copies off of then you better sell those 1000 copies.

It makes me sad when Adam Beyer can't sell 500 copies of his new release to save his life but Marco Ranieri's Hardcore Salsa gets additional press after additional press. It's a sad state of affairs.

People please don't turn this into a ridiculous vinyl vs. cd debate.

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Originally posted by Zild The thing with vinyl is you have to guarantee a certain amount of records will be sold for it to be cost effective. If you pay to cut the master that you can press 1000 copies off of then you better sell those 1000 copies. It makes me sad when Adam Beyer can't sell 500 copies of his new release to save his life but Marco Ranieri's Hardcore Salsa gets additional press after additional press. It's a sad state of affairs. People please don't turn this into a ridiculous vinyl vs. cd debate.

Sad indeed.

And yes, let's not turn this into Vinyl v. CD... Terrific call...

i gotto admit that if i was a label owner who released my own tracks i would like to make my stuff more rare so not everyone has a copy. then demand becomes greater ready for a later re release maybe?. its like the release of the x box 2 in the uk.

they could have sold twice as many but know that by limiting the numbers the hype is increased and even more people buy them.

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Originally posted by richg101 i gotto admit that if i was a label owner who released my own tracks i would like to make my stuff more rare so not everyone has a copy. then demand becomes greater ready for a later re release maybe?. its like the release of the x box 2 in the uk. they could have sold twice as many but know that by limiting the numbers the hype is increased and even more people buy them.

That's, I guess, the only logical explanation I could come up with... But still quite lame in my book, and the ethics of that kind of business practice are definitely questionable at best...

kinda like "Un-supply and demand"

I expect it's absolutely nothing to do with that.

It'll effectively be a promo copy - putting a few promo copies of tracks out can cause a bit of a stir (as has always been the case with vinyl, it's no different with mp3s)... in this case you've even named the tune you're after on a messageboard and as soon as that track comes out you'll grab a copy straight away - as quite possibly will a few others.

Those copies (even digital ones) will obviously end up in the hands of a few DJs (admittedly probably not very big ones as they'll get sent the track directly) who will play them on radio shows, include them in mixes and charts, so that when the track gets a full release, people already know about it.

That particular track, Changes, is on Alternative Route and has been hammered by quite a few DJs so I'm sure they'll be doing a full blown release of it, as far as I can tell this hasn't happened yet (no signs of it being out on vinyl or anything) so I'd expect that'll happen soon and you'll be able to get your hands on it

It's a pretty standard proceedure that's been used for years across all kinds of music and it's now being used for digidownloads as well seeing that more and more DJs are starting to use them.

Yes, but the reason they started doing that was because of a physical and technological limitation that no longer exists with digital media.

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Originally posted by Zild Yes, but the reason they started doing that was because of a physical and technological limitation that no longer exists with digital media.

What limitation was that?

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Originally posted by Stu Cox I expect it's absolutely nothing to do with that. It'll effectively be a promo copy - putting a few promo copies of tracks out can cause a bit of a stir (as has always been the case with vinyl, it's no different with mp3s)... in this case you've even named the tune you're after on a messageboard and as soon as that track comes out you'll grab a copy straight away - as quite possibly will a few others. Those copies (even digital ones) will obviously end up in the hands of a few DJs (admittedly probably not very big ones as they'll get sent the track directly) who will play them on radio shows, include them in mixes and charts, so that when the track gets a full release, people already know about it. That particular track, Changes, is on Alternative Route and has been hammered by quite a few DJs so I'm sure they'll be doing a full blown release of it, as far as I can tell this hasn't happened yet (no signs of it being out on vinyl or anything) so I'd expect that'll happen soon and you'll be able to get your hands on it It's a pretty standard proceedure that's been used for years across all kinds of music and it's now being used for digidownloads as well seeing that more and more DJs are starting to use them.

Makes sense.

Still sucks tho...

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox What limitation was that?

The limited number of pressings you can get before you have to pay for a whole new master. Many vinyl promos are just that promotional copies pressed off a sometimes lower quality master with the specific intent to feel the market to decide if you want to go ahead and spend the cash to run an official release.

With digital media you don't have that problem.

I see what you're saying, although testing the market is still valid - the fact that there isn't a fixed number of test copies you can send out with mp3 I don't think changes much as they wouldn't want too many copies to get out before they do their full whack with promotion.

I know a lot of companies now don't actually bother with promos and just send the 100 or so test presses out as promos instead, which I think complies with what you're saying - of course this isn't something you have with digital media, so you don't even have test presses to clear... but I think the promotional reasons are still totally valid

Well... I'll admit it... I was pushed to the dark side on this one...

yet another example of hte music industry shooting itself in the foot.

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox I see what you're saying, although testing the market is still valid - the fact that there isn't a fixed number of test copies you can send out with mp3 I don't think changes much as they wouldn't want too many copies to get out before they do their full whack with promotion. I know a lot of companies now don't actually bother with promos and just send the 100 or so test presses out as promos instead, which I think complies with what you're saying - of course this isn't something you have with digital media, so you don't even have test presses to clear... but I think the promotional reasons are still totally valid

Yeah but that's like shooting a bear with a .22 rifle. Yeah you shot the mother****** but he's still pissed off and coming at you.

I guess that only makes sense to me right now after all these drinks.

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox Those copies (even digital ones) will obviously end up in the hands of a few DJs (admittedly probably not very big ones as they'll get sent the track directly) who will play them on radio shows, include them in mixes and charts, so that when the track gets a full release, people already know about it.

That may sound right to some degree, but if a track is getting the props on airplay and such, people are gonna go looking for it, and if they find out its sold out, the sale could be lost if the punter doesn't come back again, so that can't be the reason. i certainly seems very strange.
unless.... maybe the label has to pay to have the track on the site, eg $50 a month to have an account, and the account has expired, so they have put 'sold out' for the labels catalogue??
I have never used dd's so I don't know how this shit works. You'd need to check the other tracks for the label...

Well I reckon it would just encourage people to download it illegaly from filesharing programs.

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