Limited Releases

[Slothrop]

Kind of prompted by the Burial / Thom Yorke thing...

Is there really any point in this sort of thing?

I can get with the DMZ thing where you do a decent initial run of a tune for the people who are into it at the time and then steadfastly don't repress when it sells out.

And I haven't really got a problem when a tape-only ambient drone label decide to limit something to 27 copies when they might otherwise have sold 30 copies worldwide.

But what's really achieved by a super-limited pressing of something that a lot of people are obviously going to want? It seems like it's just an ego thing for the people involved and a bit of cash in the pockets for ebay shitehawks who got in quickly on the preorders. I mean, musicians are obviously free to release stuff however they want, but it's hard to see what the point of this sort of release is...

 

[Benny Bunter]

yeah, that Thom Yorke/Burial record is precisely the sort of thing where,if I wanted it, I would just download it illegally.

Genuinely rare records that didn't have a large pressing at the time for a genuine reason perhaps deserve to go for more money, but this seems like they're trying for a cheap shortcut to rarity and the mystique that supposedly goes with it. Surely they'll know roughly how many copies of this they could actually sell and press up the required amount, so the fact they choose not to is clearly a pose. Shite...