Wow. This is amazing.
I was just in a little coffee shop near here getting some Oregon Chai (nectar of the gods), and decided to peruse the attached record store. I rarely do this, as it is one of those small, fancy record stores that sells CD's for $16-18 that I can get on amazon.com for $12-14. However, sometimes they have some good used CD's for $8, and they actually have a section dedicated solely to dark metal, which I love to look at (and usually end up buying something out of).
Well, tonight I was looking at that section, and noticed that there is a sub-section of compilation albums; most of which from Century Media. And these aren't your average compilation albums. Here's essentially what Century Media does:
Compilation Recipe:
*2-3 parts well-known bands (Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Nevermore, Opeth, etc.) to get you hooked
*fill to as close to 80 minutes as possible with lesser known bands, many of which are just breaking the scene, to draw you in
*serve loud, heavy, and dirt fucking cheap: $5 to $9 brand spanking new, fresh CD swaddling clothes and all
I bought 3 albums (one of which was a double album) for $18.20. Exactly 80 songs. ~291 minutes total. EIGHTEEN DOLLARS AND TWENTY CENTS.
True, I may not like all of these bands. But I'm guaranteed to like a good portion of them, and will probably now buy their products in the future. Why? Because Century Media doesn't dick their artists for a profit.
[Added after listening to one of the albums:]
That was a 76 minute orgasm. Of the 17 songs by unique bands, there might have been 2 or 3 that I wasn't thoroughly impressed with. Probably at least half of them I enjoyed more than enough to run out and start buying albums by them.
I was just in a little coffee shop near here getting some Oregon Chai (nectar of the gods), and decided to peruse the attached record store. I rarely do this, as it is one of those small, fancy record stores that sells CD's for $16-18 that I can get on amazon.com for $12-14. However, sometimes they have some good used CD's for $8, and they actually have a section dedicated solely to dark metal, which I love to look at (and usually end up buying something out of).
Well, tonight I was looking at that section, and noticed that there is a sub-section of compilation albums; most of which from Century Media. And these aren't your average compilation albums. Here's essentially what Century Media does:
Compilation Recipe:
*2-3 parts well-known bands (Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Nevermore, Opeth, etc.) to get you hooked
*fill to as close to 80 minutes as possible with lesser known bands, many of which are just breaking the scene, to draw you in
*serve loud, heavy, and dirt fucking cheap: $5 to $9 brand spanking new, fresh CD swaddling clothes and all
I bought 3 albums (one of which was a double album) for $18.20. Exactly 80 songs. ~291 minutes total. EIGHTEEN DOLLARS AND TWENTY CENTS.
True, I may not like all of these bands. But I'm guaranteed to like a good portion of them, and will probably now buy their products in the future. Why? Because Century Media doesn't dick their artists for a profit.
[Added after listening to one of the albums:]
That was a 76 minute orgasm. Of the 17 songs by unique bands, there might have been 2 or 3 that I wasn't thoroughly impressed with. Probably at least half of them I enjoyed more than enough to run out and start buying albums by them.
Anyway, that oughtta hold me for about 2 weeks. Plus I bought the "No Thanks!" boxed set last week that I haven't finished listening to yet. (A mandatory purchase if you claim to know anything about punk rock by the way).
You seem like a pretty cool dude, maybe we should be friends. Hopefully I'll see you in Columbus on the 20th.