Am I The Victim or the Crime? An editoral by Kevin Long

 Am I The Victim or the Crime? An editorial: What does Pink Floyd's 27 CD Numbered Box Set Have To Do With Love, The Economy, Stupidity and The State of The Music Industry. Just Everything!!! 

Pink Floyd's team got the memo on how to get mailbox checks again! The world loves a special, numbered, "limited" collection, it's how you prove your true status in the absence of live shows to boast about. If you head over to the advertisement from Rolling Stone Magazine they will try and convince you that 27 cds' worth of quality music from the 7 early years was "just" discovered. Basically, all the shit that got recorded up to and when "Meddle" was being made. If you are sincerely interested in this, here is the link to the story or commercial http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/pink-floyd-detail-massive-27-disc-early-years-box-set-w431264

So back to my rant...... For those mega Pink Floyd fans (like everyone) that hit the link they will freak at the price of $700 but some will be happy to buy it. But this is where this collection of sounds is a scam. The record companies, to make money, have picked up on the comic book industry strategy. It is a last ditch effort to save the leeches that got rich off of other people's talent. Now they make it off our love for a band and our vanity. I prefer to save 500 dollars and only know the songs Pink Floyd wanted me to hear. I bailed on the bullshit commercial I was reading before they got to the hooks since they are not targeting the record listeners. They are targeting the "collector" who mostly do not own and/or listen to actual record players 

because if they opened the seal, it loses tons of value. So this box set must be limited to a certain number to increase collectors interest and fear. See these boxes of tin made at the same time, get numbered. We all want to be number 1 in ......... loving our favorite band. I usually get around 38 when I buy a show print. I usually don't because the price tag is too much. Say, for example, I really didn't like the poster but got number one, I could double my money on eBay for a couple of days after the show. But then, oddly, most show posters lose their value the longer time passes, until it's been fifty years or was a incredibly unique or memorable show. My favorite super hero may have died ten times but at least they follow the laws of normal collectables. Back to collecting music, I go to around 100 shows a year but they feed on the ones that have to prove it. Maybe they create the individual who is still not complete after doing what they live for. Do you know I sold my Fare Thee Well stubs for more than face two weeks after the concert? Now they are worthless. 

I got to go to the best gathering of Deadheads in 20 years then I made money on ticket stubs. I felt guilty but I did miracle my best friend all three nights. That does not forgive my selling every fucking stub I had in the house. But do you want to know what does explain such a mixed up situation? Money! It has destroyed many love affairs and chips away at our character daily. Why are people paying more for the "limited" Orange Record, that they don't even plan on ever confirming the color of, much less listening to it. 

The same reason Pink Floyd can sell you countless hours of shit that did not make a record and the songs you love and have heard countless times but instead it will not have drums or just be a vocal track. See, they use words like alternate versions but most never open the first 200 boxes because then it's not a valuable collectible anymore. Even more bizarrely, they would never even consider selling it or listening to it. Why? Because it would lose value. If you're asking how things got so fucked up with the best thing in the universe. It's the same answer as before, money. But in this case, the lack of it. Revenue drops ten fold because record companies refuse to think outside the box. Yea right, I bet they did not even consider anything but doubling down on taking advantage of our love for a band. Think about all the things you have done to see Phish more times than most people think is reasonable, more people think it's absurd, it's fucking priceless. These people love money and most are just as crazy to receive more as we are to see shows. So keep supporting your bands but stop supporting people who used to own your bands. I try not to value money over experience but it's more useful than a piece of paper I already used to go see a concert. So forgive me if I am just as bad for selling my stubs. But I can't buy more tickets with old ones!. Besides, stubs just feed your vanity and I have plenty to spare. And even stubs are being taken away because so many tickets now are just printed sheets of paper, no artwork whatsoever.  Who frames printed out emails? So, if you want to purchase a ticket to a Grateful Dead Concert from Deer Creek that never happened because of a riot, go to Grateful Music on Ebay. For those that don't know me that was not a writer's hook. It was a commercial so I can feed my love not prove it. Shit, my jobs pays me in music so that may be why I tape my sandals and refuse to conform to misery. But the truth is most say I refuse to grow up. That's okay, it doesn't hurt my feelings, because everybody has to sleep at night. Have a good day at work. But I bet that box of numbered noises will be released on payday. Shit, it's time I got to work on the site.  

Kevin Long
Greg Heffelfinger