IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 12 lines the nice little reviews are usually the reviews you would

>> >>the nice little reviews are usually the reviews you would >>see if you recieved the fax from Watts Music (if you are a record store). >>those are the Watts Music descriptions written by the employees there. >> > >Well i don't care who writes them. Those descriptions >really help me pick out what music I'm going to buy >each week. The other on-line stores I shopped at never >included those descriptions. > >

Resonance records in Florida did the same thing. I am not saying that it is a bad thing. we, as consumers should be allowed to see as much information as possilbe as to what releases come out every week. we want to be aware of every single release that comes out. i don't want to miss anything. however, i just question wether there is any copyright infringement at all. if watts music writes the descriptions and these descriptions are only supposed to be for "record store buyers" eyes. it's supposedly "industry" sensitive information. i doubt that these stores asked for permission to use the "watts music descriptions" or Nemesis' or whoevers for their mailers and www sites. not that it should be a problem, cause in the end, hopefully the stores and the distributors will end up selling more records. but i remember when Resonance Records started sending out a release mailing list like BentCrayon and Sonic Groove have and at the time, i was working at store here in boston. soo. i would do some of the ordering for the shop. every week i am going over the faxes which is pretty much the coolest thing when working at shop (aside from shipment day on Wedenesdays). On the weekend, i would recieve the Resonance list and SEE the exact same descriptions in the Watts fax. since i had become good friends with one of the buyers/salesperson and head writers at watts, i just told him in passing....."did you know that Resonance is using YOUR descriptions" to sell records?" he said no. i read it off to him and he was just like, "yeah, that's what i wrote. every single word". then we just joked how my friend should get a royalty or something since all these "online" stores are just gonna OCR the faxes and put them online. Ideally, if the distributors where smart enough, they would "liscence" the use to their descriptions. but at the moment, they are all trying to get their own web sites in order for the stores to use. but from what i have seen so far. the Stores have better catalogs online than the distributors do. i guess it's a little more difficult to do when you have an inventory of 60,000 records and cd's comapred to shops that have a third of that in stock. Sonic Groove's mailer is their own descriptions. even though they are shorter, at least they took the time to do things on their own. i totally respect that. just some thoughts, bennyblanco

quoted 4 lines Well i don't care who writes them. Those descriptions

>Well i don't care who writes them. Those descriptions >really help me pick out what music I'm going to buy >each week. The other on-line stores I shopped at never >included those descriptions.

we are guilty of using the distributor decriptions in our mailings, but i dont really get to hear or see these releases until they get into my hands every wednesday. i have to read them, edit all of the words "phat, dope, ect out of them, and try to make it something that makes sense. mike at drop beat is so right when he says they are plain wrong a lot of the time. the last O release on sahko is a prime example. one of the descriptions said it was both of their albums together on one cd. i am glad i knew better or i would have ordered a zillion it helps us, and the customer as well, but the descriptions need to be edited for normal human consumption most of the distributors dont have a clue. they wait for the one sheet to hit their desk and then they really under order. all of them are so geared around "dance music" that this is something they cant get a grip on. one of my distributors sent me a copy of one of the white labels on dot from sweeden. she said "we dont want to stock it, but you may like it". we already knew about it (because of the kind people on this list) and told the distibutor to bring it in. they declined, someone else brought it in, and they did really well with it. one of the big new york distributors had first dibs on the new scala cd and 12". they only brought in 20 for the whole country. they were sold out immediately. to me that is very short sighted. -- pj>the exalted grand puba of mail order modern music 2905 o'donnell st, baltimore, md. 21224 fon: 410.675.2172 fax: 410.675.2373 www.modernmusic.com