This is something that really annoys me, as this kind of averse attitude to online distribution is also prevalent among Japanese indie (doujin) musicians. They release their albums only physically, first during doujin events and then to various shops. You might be able to buy the albums physically from some Japanese web stores, but then you get hit with damn expensive import fees (so better buy a lot of stuff at the same time), not to mention any potential customs fees (which are easy to get when buying a lot of stuff at the same time). And since the physical copies are also limited, trying to get older albums legitimately can be pretty much impossible.
What makes it all even more annoying is that it's not like the artists would be completely unaware of digital music services - they post samples to Soundcloud, and some might even sell an album or two on Bandcamp, but the vast majority of everything is just completely unavailable in any legitimate digital manner. Of course, most of it is available via less legitimate sources, but that has its obvious downsides, like not having any idea when new releases will actually become available. Just a week ago an album I'm really looking forward to[1] was released physically during a doujin event. If that was available on Bandcamp, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, but since it's not, I'm forced to wait for who knows how long before I even get to listen to the damn thing proper.
Doesn't this music cater to the "I'm going to judge music partly based on how the artists decide to distribute it" crowd? That has nothing to do with musicianship or sound.
It might be a psychological hack to cause more people to become superfans by drawing out the obsessive compulsive desire to collect rare artifacts (which happen to be music CDs in this case).
>That has nothing to do with musicianship or sound.
So? Music is not just about musicianship or sound, and art even less so.
It's an experience, and how you approach that experience is equally important.
That's also why Joe Satriani or some poser like Yngwie Malmsteen are no "better" than someone like BB King, nor is a pristeen sounding acid-jazz Blueray better than some crappy sounding Alan Lomax recordings.
>It might be a psychological hack to cause more people to become superfans by drawing out the obsessive compulsive desire to collect rare artifacts (which happen to be music CDs in this case).
Even more common is the psychological compulsion to just download or buy stuff and amass a huge collection which you're never gonna hear more than 1-2 times...
I agree the reality is people judge music by the experience and not the sound, but isn't that silly?
Isn't it a bit circular if the best music in your or my opinion becomes the music that we most fervently collect or go to concerts of (possibly because friends do), and then we continue fervently collecting it or attending concerts because "it's the best music"?
What makes it all even more annoying is that it's not like the artists would be completely unaware of digital music services - they post samples to Soundcloud, and some might even sell an album or two on Bandcamp, but the vast majority of everything is just completely unavailable in any legitimate digital manner. Of course, most of it is available via less legitimate sources, but that has its obvious downsides, like not having any idea when new releases will actually become available. Just a week ago an album I'm really looking forward to[1] was released physically during a doujin event. If that was available on Bandcamp, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, but since it's not, I'm forced to wait for who knows how long before I even get to listen to the damn thing proper.
[1] https://soundcloud.com/nachi_tt/supernova-crossfade