stormspell

Tall Blonde Gal? I think James is trying to tell us something, or should I say Jamina?

Ok, thanks.

Hey man, thanks for the tip. I actually have been familiar with BTR for the past 20 years. I'm not big fan of their recent releases, but I loved their debut album "Bending the Rules" from early 90es which was fantastic slab of true Euro steel. I wanted to re-release it, but unfortunately there are legal issues due to some ex-members which wrote substantial part of that album and are not part of the band anymore, so it was not ment to be. BTR currently got a US manager which sold the rights for a CD compilation called "SALVATION" to some Californian label called JetSpeed Records. Unfortunately for them the whole affair turned out to be a fluke - the label released duplicated cdr product without notice and any promotion and the manager sued the label. I'm not familiar what the outcome was as I havent spoken to the manager recently, but I see they sell the "Salvation" on their own website (www.btrus.com), so I guess they acquired part of the pressing at least. If you need any info on Bulgarian bands, dont hesitate to PM me and I'll help you out with whatever info I can. Cheers

Actually it is explained there in the info box on top, all you have to do is read it "To help keep the eBay community safe, enhance bidder privacy, and protect our members from fraudulent emails (such as fake second chance offers), eBay has changed how bid history information is displayed. If you place a bid on a higher-priced item, only you and the seller of the item can view your User ID in the bid history. Other members can no longer view User IDs and will see anonymous names, such as Bidder 1. "

Again with the old account? Incredible...

Good idea, but unfortunately only applicable when you know who the fraud party is, have proof, and can go and sue them on the spot. With most bootlegs those things are either unknown, or very hard to prove. Just assume for a second you are a musician and one day you see your boot on eBay - you buy it and all it says on the back is "Hot Metal records, made in Greece" - how would you proceed suing them? Hire an attorney to find them? The cheapest attorney charges like $50 per hour and we all know he will be coming back at ya after a week with a fat bill in hand telling you there is no such label... what will you do?

I'm not arguing with you, just trying to explain why people find it hard to trust you.

Sam, I dont think people have problem with your label and the tons of legit releases you have on it by itself. The problem is that the people know Sam the RR owner is Sam vegascds on eBay. And as far as you keep mixing legit and illegal stuff on eBay they will keep questioning the integrity of your releases. That's for certain and you have either to change it, or to learn to live with it. Cant you see it?

You realize no bootlegger will invest in remastering, especially when planning to make only 100 CDR copies for hit-and-run sales, right? That should answer your question I think.

Oh haha! I was wondering why glockose is misspelling most of the titles with those funky "Ø" instead of "O" and lower case "L" instead of "i"... now I realize he was simply copy/pasting the titles straight from your eBay auctions. Quite a clever way to avoid being detected by doing a title search, I'll give you that

The one now on CD Universe is by Parris Records WTF knows...I give up!!! http://www.cduniverse.com/sresult.asp?styl...etshowimage=off I'm sure Sam can shed light on this. From what I recall he has stated in the past that Ron never got his royalties from Metal Mayhem, so probably that's why it has been claimed a boot...

I honestly never understood why people always have to compare $15 boots to $500 originals and try to justify buying the first... I'd NEVER buy a CD for $500 for my own colelction, regardless how great the music is - that's for certain, BUT I'd never buy the boot for $15 either! Why? Simply because most of the boots have been made from the very same mp3s plenty of people share for free on soulseek or torrent sites. Why should you pay $15 lining someones pockets when you can donwload the source mp3s for free? Burn the mp3s to an audio CDr if you wish and there you go, the same audio result.

I offer every band 3 options: barter deal, fixed lump sum in advance, or percentage per sold CD basis. So far all bands opted for the lump sum. If they take the percentage deal they may make quite more money (or may not, depending how CDs sell). It is their choice, so I dont think anyone should blame me how much I pay - its clearly their choice to decide whether to take the fixed sum upfront, or take the gamble with juicier per sold CD basis. Oh yeah, and I do the same like glockose - the band retain the copyrights, I only license one-time 1000 CDs pressing and a grace period of one year in which they agree not to relicense it to another label. Is it fair? I think it is. If the band think its not, they are free to move on and chose another label - open market economy as you say.

I think the more important question is, for how much do they end... I honeslty think BIN of $11.99 would be much more affordable for many people than trying to win 99 cent auction. I agree with that and you get my kudos for having them at your site for fixed price. But why not make eBay store and have same CDs for the same prices on eBay too? You will sell much more CDs at lower cost than only 100 at higher and the total profit at the end would be the same, if not bigger. Actually I'm hoping to avoid that. I hope to keep the passion and the fun of hunting down old bands and making good releases. If I delvelop the label with the business side being my main focus, I fear the passion will be gone and I'll not have the same interest and artistic freedom I enjoy now. As long as the label is self-efficient and can return the investment so I dont have to reach to my pocket for every new release, I'll be a happy camper. You see, I understand what you mean, and to certain extend I do admire you for the hard work you have been putting up, especially with keeping up with the extensive eBay sales you have week in and week out. Its a very hard job and I dont know how you manage to keep up with it (unless you have a hefty crew working for you). But then again, if we look at the band royalties, you see, paying $10 per sold CD of 100 units actually equals to paying $1 per 1000 CDs pressed. So in my eyes it is not so much. Besides, I care for the clients too, and want to keep the golden medium so the band gets some money, but the client does not have to pay arm and leg for their CD too. That's my simple filosophy. I pay a small fraction of what you say you pay to your bands, but I pay mine all in advance so the band does not fear I'll rip them off later, and I also cover all expenses on the release (pay for artwork, remastering, layout and design, etc.) - those expenses put together actually cost quite a lot sometimes, and many other small labels require the bands to take care of them. So to me its no really different if someone will pay $4000 to their band, and make them pay $3000 back for new artwork, mastering, design, etc. or if I pay my band only $1000, but fork the $3000 for the expenses out of my own pocket. P.S. almost forgot: I also give my bands 50 or more free retail-ready CDs for their personal use. Can you afford doing this at 100 units run?

There are people and people. I personally would never pay more than $20-30 for an OOP CD, tops!. If I want it I get it on CDR and wait till its reissued. Other people wont settle for anything but the original... it is the same with all other collectors really, whether they collect stamps, coins, cars, or whatever... I guess that's why I'm not considered a collector, and other people are. Simply as that. Hell, I even didnt buy some of SunCity reissues I wanted coz I thought $18 plus shipping is an outrageous price for fresh reissue. I guess I'm very cheap person when it comes to shopping for my personal collection

This is true, but could be a two-handled sword coz once a band sees their original CD (or boot faking the original) fetch insane prices they assume all 1000 reissue units will sell for $100 each and demand ridiculous fees. So it could be a mighty catalyst, or dreadful inhibition... And sometimes they come with the ideas such as "okay, lets make handfull of copies and put them one at a time on eBay to maximize the profit" which I personally dont approve. Because for me one of the assets of a good reissue is to be made easily obtainable for everyone at affordable fixed price.

I agree in general, but in case with some lesser and obscure bands for which every sold CD would count, by the time you can react the effect could be devastating. The Greeks make 500 copies of each bootleg, let's say I can stop them from selling on eBay with VeRO, but what about GEMM, musicstack, and all numerous small Mail Orders all over the world that will carry them? Its like poking a water balloon with a needle - you poke one source and it disperse its stock to 10 others... You know, it takes me quite a long time to get a release out. From the time contacting the band and start negotiating, finding bonuses, remastering, pushing them to write liner notes, commisioning artwork, making booklet design and layout, patches, etc., then manufacturing the product it takes like 6 months even more. It is enough for me to get fully commited to this process and a boot to pop out to take all the fun out of the release... and it is not because of the invested money, but coz you put your soul in it and try to give your best and make the most elaborate release ever and then some goofs steal it from you overnight. I know that when this happens to me I'd rather give up and scrape the project than to fight pointless battles... NRR would have been a good indicator if one can fight bootlegs with better re-issues. Unfortunately I'm yet to see NRR re-issue which looks better than the boots

Absolutely! I was just thinking how to organize the list better, tha's all.

LV KIX, I understand your point. However, I make a difference between a scrounger who finds ONE orignal legit copy of a rare CD in some pawnshop and re-sells it, and a person who counterfeit 100 or 500 and re-sells them all. Bands getting/not getting their share is very valid point by all means, but far from being the only one. For instance I'll share my two biggest personal griefs with bootlegs: 1. My grief as customer: When boots are sold in vague way deceiving people of thinking they are getting something real for their money. As a customer nothing else would piss me off than getting something I did not expect to receive, regardless if I paid $5, or $55. I feel bloody cheated all the same. 2. My grief as small indy label: By mass-booting an album it essentially robs the band or some label from the opportunity of investing time and money into proper re-issue. Especially valid for indy bands with limited market.

You have got it all wrong Stormy. Sorry. Maybe, depending from the view point I guess. From my personal standpoint it looks quite true to me.

Your point is very moot simply because by supporting the bootleggers you pour fuel into their engine and they keep ripping off more and more. Go see the never-ending list glockose just posted. I personally know several small labels which were working on some re-issues getting the bands invloved, with liner notes, lyrics, bonuses, etc., but all had to scrape the projects out coz meanwhile the bootlegs popped out and presaturated the market. In short and to the point: legit reissues with fat booklets, bonuses and such aint coming if you support the boots, period!

The list glockose posted is with silverpressed boots only. To avoid confusion maybe it would be better idea to keep lists separated and make another one for CDR kock-offs? I think it would be good idea if Dan fix this topic on top and everyone can come and check the list when in doubt.

I personally would have lowered the price, so everyone interested can go and buy it now at regular retail value. This way you kill instantly all speculators that will buy it from RR site for $13.99 and try to re-sell on eBay for insane $$$. or change the mp3 songs to rap Actually I aready started embedding a SWF animated sequence into the jukebox which looks like this: Now everyone who wants can steal it, I'd be glad if they do

Wow! That first one sold for 82$ and Sam is selling them at the buy it now price of 20$. They copied word for the word the description and also the sound-clips. But it's OK more sales and traffic for R.R., right? WOW! I wouldnt be really bothered for the description, but stealing someone's mp3 clips, hence their bandwidth is very repulsive behaviour! I wonder when copycats will figure out how to steal my flash jukeboxes. I'd better go and embed watermarks on them asap...

I'm sorry for you eagles, but if your copy lacks the IFPI number the &then reported than your copy is probably the Greek bootleg which came in circulation last year.