Last post to mainly clear up the scenario with the audio so it's clear, especially to Menosance.
We haven't said there will be no audio before the titles are released. There is still over 6 weeks to release. People expressed the desire to pre order the singles before we were ready to give audio previews, so we offered them the opportunity. The reason we don't like giving audio previews this early have been expressed several times across the internet, and I'm not going to waste everyones time going through it again. There is a whole promotion campaign that hinges on the release of the audio. We could have waited until we were ready to put the audio up but there seemed to be a swell of people wanting to pre order new products from us.
Guess what happened? Through a combination of the artists great track record and our labels curation history, it has been the most successful Pre Order we have had on our store since 'Presence'. The 100 edition will be all gone shortly, and we know these will go to people who are dedicated fans of either the artists, or the label or both. If you think you might not be into something Djrum or Ruffhouse put out on Samurai, then you probably don't need the edition of 100 that will no doubt be going for large prices on Discogs shortly after. We answered our markets demand and they have told us very clearly with their money that is what they wanted.
Either way, I know I personally buy some records blindly and have never had any trouble getting rid of the few I haven't liked. I bought the latest Actress box set with no audio. We are not the first label to do this. Maybe some of you only buy DnB but this is standard practice for a lot of major labels in other genres. Also just to point out, we won't be doing this for every record we release, every campaign is different.
If you hear the audio when it is released in a few weeks and like it then, you can buy a 12" and you will actually get the music at the same time as everyone else. If the music is the issue here shouldn't that be the thing that's most important? You get to hear it and own it at the same time as everyone else?
Also the Djrum 12" is not DnB, anyone who has managed to track down the audio of 'Plantain' will realise that.
Lastly: Hey I'm not a prude, I know people use 'crude' language , amazingly i use it myself quite often. But in my world if you use the 'c' word, even indirectly towards someone, you have stepped over a major line. That said, of course I have frequented forums for many years and I saw the worst days of DOA, but the reason I ended up giving that forum a wide berth is exactly this reason.
Part of what drew me to DnB in the start was a community vibe, and with the physical aspect of swapping music gone I still enjoy chatting with people I don't know about what's happening, and I know if I'd had the chance to talk more on a forum with the labels and artists I respected, the last thing I would have done is roll out the 'c' word to criticise something they had done in their marketing. But yes it's a forum, everyone is within their rights to be as cheeky as they like, but it doesn't mean I should be ok with it.
People need to draw the line somewhere, and that's the line for me. That 808 feels he has to stand by what he says and still shows no signs of apologising shows me the indignant childish defence is here. When you start a sentence with 'I'm going to put this to bed", it speaks volumes about your perception of yourself in this conversation.
Ironic to also note supportive people have been labelled as 'sickofans', more evidence of the obvious imbalance here..
But thanks to everyone who has been supportive, Samurai isn't going anywhere. I'll have a think about the mugs. I've just always thought they were a bit of a cliche tbh, but let's see
