[photo by rserrano on Flickr]
If you’re one of the ten people who read my blog you already know The Drones are one of my favorite bands in recent years. I originally discovered them through a review in my favorite music magazine, Mojo, of their 2005 release “Wait Long By The River and The Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By”. I think I read someone claim they were a cross between Neil Young and Laughing Hyenas and that’s a description that actually does the incredible songwriting and the fury with which its delivered justice.
The Drones just released a new album in Australia and if you happen to be in Australia, you can buy it from iTunes here. If you’re not in Australia, well, you’re out of luck. In fact, you can’t even get the amazing aforementioned 2005 album digitally in the US, or the great album in-between, Gala Mill. You can buy the CD, if you’re into such things and aren’t in a rush (and I’d actually recommend it because the lyric sheet is worth the price of the disc). The album will come out in the US in 2009, and by then we US Drones fans will probably have already downloaded it from a friend. I don’t know any of the details of The Drones’ record deals, who manages them, or what their strategy is, but from the consumer/fan point of view this seems like a missed opportunity at best and poor execution at worst.
It doesn’t have to be this way. They (or their label, or labels) could have released worldwide on the same day and date both digitally and physically using Topspin. They could have delivered higher quality audio, the lyric sheet, photos, and videos all in one package from their Web site. They could have given an option for digital to be downloaded now and CDs and vinyl to be sent later. They could have repackaged the previous, impossible-to-find-digitally albums similarly and properly served a fans’ Drones fix. And best of all, they’d end up with the email address of every purchaser instead of sending those fans off to iTunes and others. When you send your fans away to iTunes to purchase, iTunes mails them every Tuesday and you don’t even know who they are! Doh!
I’m flying home from Boston right now, my two year-old is asleep on the seat next to me, and I’m listening to this new Drones record for the tenth time in a week. It’s incredible, the best thing ever done by one of my favorite bands, period. Unfortunately I can’t even give my friends a link to buy it for themselves. Drones, management, label, whoever…LET US HELP. Please? It’d be an honor.
Other bands, labels, and managers, please don’t make the same mistake. I understand how territory rights work, but they really don’t serve the fans very well in the age of the tubes of the Interwebs. IMHO, even if you have different owners in different territories, you should always make the music easily available for sale from the artist’s Web site worldwide. Split the money on the backend, don’t deter the fans from buying the product. Hit us up if you want some help.
ian c rogers
Topspin
UPDATE: Alec from The Drones’ US Label wrote a comment correcting me: All of the Drones’ albums *except* the new one are available in the US from iTunes. Click HERE to buy “Wait Long By The River…” now, for starters. It’s incredible. I didn’t realize this because a) I usually do my download purchasing through Amazon and the records aren’t available there, and b) all the links on the Drones’ site take you to AU and UK download stores. Thanks to Alec for the comment (click through to see my response), now lets see what we can do about getting the new album up and running worldwide ASAP and getting all these albums for sale directly from Drones and ATP sites! 
