Sunday, November 2, 2008

I'm Only Stubborn Because I Love So Much

Dance Records dot com is no longer stocking new vinyl. They haven't been for the last four months. This means that resource is now gone, and I'm left with only Forced Exposure to get records domestically. But they don't keep up too well with a LOT of the latest and greatest techno releases, so I'm stuck with having to pay a shit ton for shipping charges to get imports from Juno, UK.

Most of the records I want are pressed in Germany. Most (but certainly not all) of the labels releasing the best techno are based there. Germany isn't stealing our artists. We're giving them away. There aren't enough opportunities here for upcoming artists to make an income from producing and dj'ing. So they move to Berlin. It's an inevitable decision for many U.S. techno artists. It's a trend.

If I could reduce my record collection drastically, how the hell am I supposed to move a couple thousand records overseas? I don't have the money for that. I have negative money.
And even if I did want to digitize all this vinyl and pretend I'm playing records with Serato--which I definitely don't want to do--the time and storage demands would be overwhelming. Yes, reduction of arms and elimination of the weaker records is possible, but that shit takes time. Time is money. And I don't have much of either.
Who does?

Detroit pioneers like Kevin Saunderson and Carl Craig have money. They can do what they want. They don't have to move to Berlin to survive. They get paid to fly there. What do you think they get paid for one gig after expenses? No less than five grand, I'm positive. And I've heard plenty of rumors that they often get ten grand or more. Being a (famous) dj can be great because you don't have to split that money with four other band members that annoy you, restrict your creativity, and give you herpes.

After spending a couple thousand dollars buying records from Dance Records in less than two years, they are cutting me off. I sent them an e-mail asking about the vinyl situation, and they didn't even bother to respond. Their customer service has been great. And now they're too embarrassed to respond to one of their best customer's inqueries.
They could have at least said, "Sorry, bro. Vinyl market in the U.S. is dead and we don't care enough to just sell a couple hundred records every week. You should move to Berlin."

Fuck you.

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