An announcement from Marc With a C.
Hello there. By now, you may have read about Chris Zabriskie’s manifesto about the state of the music industry. Fascinating stuff, if you haven’t, and it’s very hard for me to put things any better than he did. To frame my own statement, I’d like to pull one particular quote from his article:
“The world is changing faster than we can keep up with, and I can tell you assuredly that no one making music today has any idea what they are doing anymore. When you see Of Montreal releasing an album with decals, paper lanterns, and whatever the hell else along with it, you know something is sort of wrong with the process.”
I started physically releasing Marc With a C records in 2002. They came out on CD, and in the early days, I’d make many of them by hand before a gig. It’s still exciting to release these things, and I’m excited that I get to continue doing it in a DIY fashion. But in recent months, I’ve been a bit perplexed about how to continue getting the music that I’ve made heard by the people that want to enjoy it. Please let me explain.
I will tell you outright, I buy a lot of albums. My collection spills into numerous rooms of the house. It’s really a sight to behold. Most of those records were purchased on vinyl, and I’d heard practically every one of them – at least in part – before I’d decided to spend my money on it. Sometimes I’d heard the albums through a friend, and in other cases I’d downloaded it from the internet. I will often “pirate” a record through my local BitTorrent site simply to find new records to buy. Heck, I’ve leaked my own albums through those avenues just to pick up some new listeners. But mostly, I don’t buy any more or less music than I ever did with all of my free acquisitions. I do my best to support the artists that I like in the ways that make sense to me, and I believe that most of us do.
I like to have CD’s available for people to purchase, and I especially like putting them together at home. Some people prefer to obtain my music through iTunes and Amazon MP3, so I’ve offered digital distribution. Last year, I’d made my records available for free download through CLLCT for a short period of time. Those were pulled because I simply didn’t see the need to put my albums up for download on another site when I could be offering them up myself.
An interesting thing happened because of my time spent with CLLCT, though. Nearly every single person that I ever met at a show of mine that heard my records through that site eventually bought something from me. They all had were files of my music, but they still wanted to throw a few bucks my way. I’m floored and flattered by how well it worked to simply allow people to hear my music and then decide what they wanted to do with it.
And that is where we are at today, dear reader.
Do you want to buy a Marc With a C CD?
If so, great! Some of them are still in print, and I’d like for you to have them!
Do you want to buy my albums via iTunes?
If so, cool! I’d love for you to have it, and there are links that will guide you to the correct place on my website!
Do you want to have some Marc With a C albums on vinyl?
Me too, but I don’t have that available yet!
Would you like to download the albums for free and buy them later if you like them?
Excellent. I’ve put up zip files of each album on the records page on marcwithac.com! No strings attached, either. Just take them.
Why would I do this? Simply put… because while I have no idea what the future of the music industry holds, I’m not going to stand in the way of how people choose to have and enjoy the songs that I have made up through the years. If you wanted one of my albums and you didn’t want to pay for it, you’d have found a torrent of it and downloaded it. Why should we play this game and pretend that it isn’t going on? I’m not into that.
If you want the music, I want you to have the music. If you enjoy it, please consider donating a few dollars or just buying a record from me… but mostly, just have it, play it for your friends, scrobble it on last.fm… go nuts!
Love on ya,
Marc
