Le Weekend is done mixing and deep in the midst of mastering(1) our 4th thing of music No Object, due to hit the virtual streets on June 20 with a sweet release party at the Pinhook! Our Very Special Guests(2) for the evening will be Durham's own(3) Horizontal Hold! The Sunday before that we'll play on the radio(4)! Some many days before that we'll preview the music and art for you! And tell you what kind local label is putting their multinational(5) muscle behind it!
I think every sentence should end with an exclamation point. Don't you!
OK, Nick Petersen of Track & Field is mastering, and we are providing inane requests
TM
That's right: their band is technically a municipal asset
WXDU - 88.7FM for locals, wxdu.org for computers
Confident in this adjective only because I have cousins in Canada
Thank you in advance for reading this not-short post!
A THING OF MUSIC
At the same time, asking someone to buy a download can lead to some mental resistance. Why pay for something you can't see? Something that could be delivered over and over again to infinite buyers without incurring any additional costs for the seller? By producing a physical delivery system for the music--even when it goes mostly unused in favor of the virtual delivery system--the music just seems more REAL. This happens on the duh level because it's VISIBLE/TANGIBLE, but maybe something also happens on a subconscious level because it obviously COST THE ARTIST SOMETHING. S/he was into this enough to spend the money or labor in a way that shows, rather than "merely" pouring (significant) money and time into recording, mixing, mastering, etc.
Add into this equation that most bands we know and care about take the music very seriously but nonetheless have no expectations of it becoming a source of income...which essentially makes them reliant on their pretty darn scant out-of-pocket resources.
That previously mentioned up-front investment to record, mix, and master the record is a real thing, but once it's done you have something that could potentially be copied infinite times. But then because of the also previously mentioned visibility/tangibility factor, you create a CD or a whatever. Now you're knee-deep into demonstrating how much you care, whether or not anyone else perceives it. Because there's no way you can sell it at a price that remotely approaches breaking even. Because the price-per-unit is so large you'd need to charge a stupid rate that would only be accepted by someone with an outsized investment in your band's success. Like your best friend. Or your mom. Because maybe you just make unusual music.
To attempt a way around that mess, here's what we're thinking about for our next thing of music: produce 7 great [some author bias should be noted] songs, and also produce an art object of some kind that represents the songs. It needs to be an object we can semi-mass-produce, with some finishing touches by hand, so that we don't need to make a particular number of them in advance and can make them roughly to match demand. (P.S. Anyone want to stoke demand for Le Weekend's music? Please see us.) It needs to be very much like, but distinguishable from, a standard CD sleeve, or 7" cover, etc. so that it fits in your music collection, or fits in a shelf at the local music store, but won't make you believe you're buying a CD/7"/etc. since later you'd feel rooked. It needs to be relatively affordable for us to produce, but not free. It needs to be something you'd actually want to look at and have in your collection. And with that object comes the right to download our forthcoming 7-song thing of music, via a download from the Internet or, if you desire something uncompressed, an email-us-and-get-a-file-transfer option.
A THING OF TALKING ABOUT THIS STUFF
We've written the 7 great [see above note] songs, and will be recording them this le weekend. The rest we need to figure out. In the meantime, what we'd like more than anything (short of that "stoking demand for Le Weekend's music" thing mentioned earlier, which is open for all takers) is to talk about this stuff. For example:
1) What does the phrase "no object" mean to you?
2) What are things that you want to do but don’t because of financial constraints? Time constraints?
3) Where and how do you most like to listen to recorded music?
4) Where and how do you most often listen to recorded music?
We would like the option to reuse responses in the art object itself or in our various online and real-life presences. If you'd like to weigh in anonymously, or without us reusing what you say, please indicate that in your post and we'll respect your wishes.
