Cheap Trick: More Afraid Of Being Ignored Than Ripped Off

from the indeed dept

Last week on the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert did a gag about the new Cheap Trick album coming out on 8-track. I assumed it was just a joke, but apparently it's real. The band, as a little marketing gimmick is actually releasing the album as an 8-track (for you kids out there, the 8-track was a briefly popular form of cassette music, though it lived on at radio stations for years after it disappeared from public use). But, much more interesting is a quote at the end of the article about plans to offer the digital tracks at a steep discount from the typical iTunes price:
"We're kind of more worried about being ignored than being ripped off."
Indeed. This is just another way of saying that "obscurity is a bigger fear than piracy." And while such things are usually applied to new, up-and-coming artists, it's nice to see that more well known artists recognize the same formula applies to them, as well.
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Filed Under: 8-track, attention, cheap trick, obscurity, piracy


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  1. icon
    Osno (profile), 8 Jul 2009 @ 4:06pm

    The radio killed the 8-track!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Larry, 8 Jul 2009 @ 4:37pm

    My radio killed a ton of 8 tracks.

    Then, my next radio started eating cassette tapes...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2009 @ 4:46pm

    they want
    us
    to want them.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2009 @ 4:52pm

    I killed my 8track..... remember the fade out in the middle of a song to it can change tracks, then fade back in.... HATED THAT!!!!!!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2009 @ 6:39pm

    Obvious

    Well thats very obvious, if people dont even want to take the time to upload your music/movie or w/e so people can get it for free, then your screwed.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2009 @ 10:45pm

    Cheap Trick

    Placed on the list of muscians whom 'get it.

    Keep sharing your views Cheap Trick.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Greg Hardison, 9 Jul 2009 @ 4:14am

    8-tracks

    "...it lived on at radio stations for years after it disappeared from public use..." Huh?? Radio stations used a standard 2-track cart format (warning: 6 tracks are missing!), mostly for :30 and :60-second long produced spots, known to the Great Unwashed as "Commercials". Tell me, who would for a minute think that 8-track carts (as in "cartridges", not "cassettes") could ever be practical for broadcast use?
    Try having someone older than 17 do your research.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    Hephaestus (profile), 9 Jul 2009 @ 7:15am

    Wonder what they think of the RIAA?

    This band seems like it would do well if all its albums were available for sale in one place.

    This place is so full of great ideas ... Thanks Mike!!

    219 note/entry) Find old bands with independent labels and approach them for the site / system.

    220) Allow Private and public Groups all based on user login name but linked to the persons email address as this is a unique identifier.

    221) Allow Parental controls with, but not limited to, groups, Individuals, Access level based on group and individual (we want to keep the kiddies safe from porn now dont we)

    222) Incoporate Collaboration into the tool set.

    223) have groups for collaboration, accounting, marketing, access, groups, email, etc

    224) visual/graphic representaion of collaboration groups.
    need to come up with some designs for this

    225) set standards for group naming conventions and user lists.

    And that does it for todays additions to the Chaordic new music tool set / system

    I really hope no one from the record labels ever checks this place out....big ... ole ... GRIN ....

    What is funny is...

    The basic design and methodology to create a system to redo/replace the music and video distribution industry is simple. Find the flaws, customer complaints, musician complaints, song writer complaints, accounting problems (cooking the books), RIAA, IP Law flaws, in the current system. Fix them via contracts, User feedback, and an open source and open standards distributed system.

    Its all pretty simple from a legal and large scale distibuted system architecture perspective. The problem lies in the fact that the record industry could never implement it, it would errode their profits in an extreme way. It wouldnt mean a loss of revenue just a re-distribution of the profits to the artists, promoters, remixers, song writers, etc.

    Personally I think this is something that give the industry execs nightmares and bolt uprights...

    On that note ....

    Thanks Mike!!! I love this place...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2009 @ 8:34am

    Re: Obvious

    english speak well, yes.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. icon
    Derek Kerton (profile), 9 Jul 2009 @ 2:03pm

    Hypocrisy

    This goes directly against one of Cheap Trick's main tenets. I think this band made it perfectly clear that they are AGAINST all forms of "free" when they exclaimed:

    "Surrender. Surrender. But don't give yourself away."

    And if that wasn't clear enough, they emphasized:

    "Aaaay. Aaay. Aaaaaaay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay."

    It seems they've changed their tune...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. icon
    Derek Kerton (profile), 9 Jul 2009 @ 2:10pm

    One of my favorite Oscar Wilde quotes:

    "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    TechnoHippie, 16 Mar 2011 @ 5:17pm

    Heyyyy babe..

    ooh what a great pickup line...
    "Hey babe...wanna come over to my house & check out my new 8-track"

    link to this | view in thread ]


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