Digital-only Album Releases

[watchthesky07]

Is anyone else disturbed by the recent amount of itunes-only album and ep releases? I'm worried about what this means for the future of the independent music industry. In the near future, is album art going to become simply a novelty? I'd like to hear what you guys think about this.

(p.s. I know this isn't a specifically "punk" discussion topic, I just figured I'd get the best feedback here)

[Ryan Damage]

I didn't even know there was such a thing as iTunes only album releases. Out of the loop and I'm okay with that. And I'd any band that would agree to something like that is pretty lame in the first place(coming from a punk's point of view).

[watchthesky07]

The only semi-positive exclusivley digital releases that I've seen are the re-issues of albums (i.e. The Fold's latest album was reissued only on itunes) It's much better for labels to simply release the rare/remixed/demo material online rather than spend all the money to repackage and rerelease an already in-print record. Other than that, it's just lame.

[Wobbie]

Nothing beats getting a piece of vinyl, and a CD. I can't understand why any band would release any new material, digital only. Although i do see how re-issues would work. People can buy the bonus tracks that come with (well, should come with) re-issues. Not a lot of peope would buy an album they already have bought, for 2 b-sides, and an acoustic track, so iTunes releasing them would make it so you could buy only those tracks. BUT, why not do both, as most bands do. People who are just getting into the band, or who haven't bought that particular album yet, would be able to buy a physical copy, while people who already have it, could buy the bonus tracks. Just releasing it digital only would be ridiculous.

There are instances where i find it okay to have digital only releases. For example, The One Up Downstairs was a band featuring Mike Kinsella and Steve Lamos, before they founded the band American Football. They recorded 3 songs for a 7" for polyvinyl records before they decided to split off into two other bands, before the 7" was even pressed, so the idea to put it out was scrapped. Fast forward 8 or 9 years to this year, and it was released digitally on iTunes. The band only recorded 3 songs, so this was a good move on their part, and they did it because of the amount of emails they were getting to release it in some form.

This sort of thing should be the only kind of thing that they use digital only releases for.