Secret Vinyl Download #11

Okay, there might be one more secret vinyl download after this one, but that really will be it. This one is kind of the penultimate WTF? situation though and deserved to be shared. A little background for you...

Without saying the name of the artist, whom I'm sure has nothing to do with the issues at hand, I pre-ordered a very special reissue of their their debut album from their website. I got the announcement a little late, so when I arrived the only options were a deluxe package that included a t-shirt. I figured, what the hell, it's their site, it'll get to me quickly enough, and it was announced there that the orders would be shipping the week of September 24th, so I placed my order and figured I'd be getting an email the next week with tracking data. That email never came though so I tried to figure out who to contact at the company handling the order. They did not have the most public of contact information available so I ended up reaching out to them via their Twitter account, to which they did respond back. Turns out my order has been delayed because the label didn't send them enough merch, though they promised they would be getting the additional orders out by or before the end of the next week. That time came and went and there was no update. I've been dealing with a lot of family health issues lately so I probably became a little more upset than I needed to be, though I raged in the most polite and serious manner possible without cursing in a further email response. In defense of the people that responded to me, they've been nothing but professional and kind, eventually shipping me some swag as an apology for my delayed order. I received the swag, which is appreciated, but I have still not yet received my order or been given any further updates about it. I feel like I should be reaching out to complain further about the situation, but I don't know what that would actually solve, as I'm certain that the people who've been in touch with me have no control over the label not sending them the merchandise that customers have paid for.

Because I'm a bit impatient, especially when something has been promised to me and then withheld, I reached out to my local indie record shop and found they had the main album in the same edition being sold via the official artist's website available if I wanted it, so I went and procured it from them. I then ordered the single that is part of the deluxe bundle on the artist's website via Amazon and I got it the next day. Of course, this just made me angrier, since the official artist's website isn't being sent the merch that was pre-ordered through it so as to fulfill the purchases but Amazon clearly has plenty of it.

Now, just for shits and giggles, it should be noted that both records come with download cards. I intended to rip the vinyl anyway, but I wanted the downloads if they were available, but neither of the codes on the cards worked, so I sent an email to the support staff on the cards. They informed me that they didn't have the downloads yet and they'd let me know when they were available. I'm sure you can guess how I feel about that. The downloads were eventually made available, but they were completely fucked up, with the main album only being available as MP3s, and the additional single including two different masterings of the b-side only. I wrote and complained about this too, and they eventually corrected the single, though I'm sure they just copied a lossless version of the a-side from another release after I saw the file name. The main album is still only available as MP3s. Ugh.

So, this artist, who I've been following closely since I started listening to them in the mid-90s, has a label that refuses to send enough merchandise to the company handling orders via their site so fans like myself can purchase directly from the artist they support. I feel bad for this artist and the company contracted to handle these orders. I'M ALSO VERY FUCKING ANGRY ABOUT THE WHOLE ORDEAL! I know that we're still in a pandemic and that pressing vinyl has gotten rather slow, but when you send enough merchandise to other retail sources to be sold but not enough for the pre-orders at the artist's own official website, there is no forgiving the parent entity, in this case Universal Music. So, I decided to share my high-resolution rips of both the main album and the single here for you to download. That said, if you can find these releases, I'd suggest you purchase them, as the final product is wonderful and very much worth your money. It also seems like this might be one of those albums that becomes difficult to find again on vinyl rather quickly. That's why when I found another copy of the album in the wild I picked it up too. And finally, outside of the items I've ordered already that haven't yet arrived, I am probably done placing pre-orders from official websites sponsored by major labels. No offense to the good people trying to fulfill those orders, but we pay too much money to deal with this shit. It's not their fault, it's whomever deemed it unnecessary to consider their transactions a priority, but knowing that's how labels like Universal are handling these situations makes it very easy for me to cut them off. I mostly deal with indie labels anyway, and thankfully most of them seem to take getting their merch out to their customers in a timely fashion seriously. I actually got a record this past week which has been delayed multiple times since the beginning of this year, but that label made a point of sending out download codes and status updates on a fairly regular basis, so I could accept that. I got my product from them when everyone else did, and they kept me in the loop, just like a good business is supposed to. If a label as large as Universal, who are making profits that most assuredly dwarf the friendly indie label I was referring to, can't be bothered to at least send out a basic "sorry" update, then I can't be bothered to deal with them.

TL;DR - Fuck businesses that will send plenty of merch to Amazon but not to the companies contracted to fulfill pre-orders from artists' official websites.

Sorry that rant went on for a long time, but like I said, I've had a lot of issues recently, a lot of misery, and sometimes it feels good to get it out on paper. Thank you, and if you follow me on Twitter you'll see some further updates after this post, including if there is a secret vinyl download #12.

SECRET VINYL DOWNLOAD #11, PART 1

SECRET VINYL DOWNLOAD #11, PART 2: THE QUICKENING!