IDM Mailing Archive

It's funny that Dmitri tries to justify Phthalo's $12 EP & $17 album pricing by saying that they release stuff by relatively established artists, unlike most other CDR labels. First of all, I wouldn't say that any of the musicians he's released music by are very well established at all. Secondly, if that were the case, why is he running a CDR label? It seems to me like the only draws to it are the low prices that you can sell the stuff for & the ability to easily put out music by unknown musicians. If he's making on average $11 profit per CD let's say, then that's about $2,700 per release, well enough to have made non-fragile real CDs with full colour artwork in an edition of 1,000. Thirdly, that doesn't explain why the prices are way HIGHER than average, that would only maybe be an adequate explaination for prices being the same. Ah well, anyway, this is why I don't buy Phthalo releases anymore. They haven't been consistent enough to warrant the large financial risk of buying them. Dmitri will probably be suffering for this approach in the near future & have to change things eventually as fewer & fewer people drop the money to get the new Phthalos, I imagine. Marc Poirier

I'm CCing this to Dimitri, because I think it's important for him to see this..

quoted 4 lines It's funny that Dmitri tries to justify Phthalo's $12 EP & $17 album

> It's funny that Dmitri tries to justify Phthalo's $12 EP & $17 album >pricing by saying that they release stuff by relatively established >artists, unlike most other CDR labels. First of all, I wouldn't say that >any of the musicians he's released music by are very well established at all.

exactly, with the exception of The Stranger, I don't think that anything they've released has been by an established artist: To call Low Res established when the Crank CD dropped is outragous, he had like one release out at the time. Now, with the release of (the amazing) Approximate Love Boat and the Mille Plateux signing, maybe, but not six months ago. OST/Rook Villard? I hardly consider him established either... before the Phthalo releases he had like one self released 12", a Space Time Conntiuum, and two tracks for Worm Interface. Robert Merlak put out his first release on the label.. I don't think anyone considers that established, I doubt he considers himself established either. V/Vm are the only ones who could be considered established, but even so, my dealings with them have always showed that they are real nice (even if they are slow with getting tracks in ;-) and somehow I couldn't imagine them making dimitri charge more for their stuff. Don't get me wrong, I really love all of the above artists, but to justify insanely high prices by labeling up and coming artists as established is just bad buisness. I'd rather Dimitri just be straight up and say that the reason he charges high prices is so he can make a few more bucks. Look at the record industry as a whole (I'm talking major and indie). Although the money the artists themselves make differs due to their 'establishment', this NEVER affects what the consumer pays. I'm still going to pay (generally) the same retail price for anyone from Madonna to AFX right down to Johnny Bedroomindiemusician, regardless of how established they are (which is all relative, btw). (This is of course, ignoring imports, etc) To say that a label should charge more (and consumers should pay more) because their artists are established is outragous. Look at Skam, they managed to keep the prices relativley low on the Mask series. I got Mask 2 for like $10 new. This ultra limited edition cost me as much as any Import 12". Somehow I think BoC, Gescom, etc are much more established than OST and Robert Merlak Of course, the price it is sure to fluxate in regards to demand, but the label themselves are no way affiliated with these prices. When Suetsu & Underwood released their 2xCDr last year it was sold for $8, WITH lovely hand made packaging, this opened a lot of people up to the wonderful world of Lucky Kitchen (okay, it probably opened about 32 of them to it, but whatever) The point is that CDrs are a medium of amateurs and convience for the buyers, and if Dimitri wants his artists to be viewed as established and charge prices as if they were real CDs (or more like he does now) he needs to do real pressings. If he wants to do CDrs the prices should reflect the prices on the current CDr market, at most like 7$ for CDEP and $12 for an album. If they were at this price I would have a complete Phthalo collection at this point, rather than my 2 Phthalo CDs (Phthalo 1&2, btw- one of which was a 'real' CD release with artwork and everything). But with the current prices I just cannot bring myself to buy these albums, which is a shame because i really love the ones i have. One final point: I plan on getting Crank when it comes out on Mille Plateux and the import full release will cost less than the domestic CDr... any other labels want to liscense Phthalo stuff? (I might even be willing to voulenteer!!) np: Souls Of Mischief: '93 Till Infinity mlt

My thoughts on the Phthalo label is that they suck for selling over priced cd-r's. I know one of the artists they released received an invoice in the mail for copies of their own records [who Phthalo didn't even pay in the first place!!] The records will follow with payment! (I'd sorta understand if Phtalo wasn't making a profit or something, but geez, people like myself on this list are giving them loads!) Their attitude is pretty stinky to me. I wouldn't buy anything from people like that, I go out of my way to support people I believe in, remember to vote with your dollar. There are enough quality inexpensive labels out there I will not buy another one of their products. Speaking of cd-r labels I'm personally enjoying all the Pitchcadet stuff and appreciate how they keep there prices down. Come to think of it my favorite american labels all keep there prices reasonable, except Phtalo. CD-R's cost $0.95 <http://www.octave.com> Well, you decide, I didn't even touch on the fact that they don't put out much quality stuff. It'll be so predictable if they change there prices now that the list that supports Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

I forgot about when Phtalo subscribed a zillion people to a list all about Phtalo without even asking anyone they subscribed, and the list activity was mad, everyone was complaining about being subscribed until the next day it was deactivated. I HATE people who spam. Phtalo needs to go away. I agree with everything Marc mentioned. One more thing about cd-r's, Phtalo doesn't even burn them them at home, they farm out the job to someone else, which still doesn't justify the price as cd-r's are slightly more expensive to burn commercially than regular silver cd's due to the lower quantity being pressed. Enough, I say no more about this. Reviews on new stuff coming soon. Picked up some exciting ne Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com