We all agreed that the mp3 format is not a desirable one, if you read the earlier posts about Fruit from the Loom. When I asked Billy thru a personal e-mail about it, he understands that it's not the way he wanted to put it out, but he was unable to find a viable financial situation to put it out on CD. He's not under contract with any labels right now, as is the situation with most of the jazz artists, so he has to deal with it as best he can. I'm sure he's also "testing the waters" with this new method of delivering music to the public to see how it shakes out. Many people have always complained about the $15 average price of CD's. Well, maybe they will be satisfied with what they can now get for $9.
Drumman,you and Colin and I will not be satisfied with the audio quality of mp3's , especially at the 56K delivery this CD is being supplied in. I totally agree that FLAC would be far superior ,but most people have never heard of Free Lossless Audio Codec, nor do they have the program or the know-how to decode it. The only ones who would have it would be those who travel the ever-popular bit torrent world. Which brings on the subject of who's going to pay for it when I can get it for free like that. That's for another thread.
I'm curious as to whether or not the mp3 format will prevent you from buying Fruit From the Loom or not ? And you too, Colin. That's a very important question which each artist has to consider. Will my fans buy my music even though it's sonically inferior to my previous output and keep supporting my musical growth OR will they choose to not buy it on download in hopes it will appear on a CD down the road ? I bought the download. What about you guys ?
And Colin your suggestion of Billy selling his Cd's at performance is a good one, one which many artists have done to try and eliminate the middleman , EXCEPT that what happens is that the club or venue usually charges the artist 35 % per CD to sell it at their club. So the artist has to jack up the price of the CD to cover that surcharge. And trust me this is true because I have seen this first-hand being involved with merchandising for Audiophile, Abstractlogix, and Walter's book.
Very tough problem. Anyone ? Peace, TED