Is Minus becoming the Get Physical of minimal?

TroySilver · Post by **TroySilver** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:11 am

When you are talking abouth vinyl, i agree, but dont forget that in the future places like beatport will be of major importance. The reason why they dont sell more then 1500 copies is because vinyl has become to expensive + there is this stupid vibe in most recordshops where vinyls are kept behind the counter for the more important dj's. With places like beatport your average joe in the middle of timboektoe can enjoy underground music at a reasonable price and with not to much effort.

I agree that BeatPort is the absolute future. Records released worldwide on the same day, at the same time, in an infinite quantity wherever anyone has an internet connection.

No more distribution nightmares. No more "behind the counter" antics. No more worrying about a store selling out of a certain hot record. No more "delays" that some experience in getting quality releases. No more "buyer's selection" that limits most shops to what the respective buyers think are any good.

Online shops like Beatport are just frickin' golden for everyone, IMO. With so much quality in one place it makes every single record label either step it up or be knocked off the market.

I'm really surprised a lot more labels aren't on BeatPort yet.

motek · Post by **motek** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:58 am

TroySilver wrote: No more distribution nightmares. No more "behind the counter" antics. No more worrying about a store selling out of a certain hot record. No more "delays" that some experience in getting quality releases. No more "buyer's selection" that limits most shops to what the respective buyers think are any good.

i'm gonna miss that..

cyhl · Post by **cyhl** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:21 am

TroySilver wrote:I'm really surprised a lot more labels aren't on BeatPort yet.

it's just coz it's quite a pain to deal with! and it's not clear whether it's totally worth it yet...

it's a new medium of distribution so it's not perfect yet, on both side of the chain:
- the tools (beatport, and all other mp3 stores, there's barely any difference betzeen them) are not totally adapted to the needs of the labels, there are glitches in the process of putting your tracks online, it's sometimes tough to choose a release date, the process is far from being mistake-free and mistakes are very difficult to get corrected a posteriori etc. etc.
- on the other hand, labels are not fully ready to deal with this distribution medium; and it's the same as with everything else, to make it "profitable", you need a strong marketing strategy adapted to this new medium, which is sometimes a bit too much to ask for small labels...

all this will evolve very fast in the next few years (or even months), and it will only get better!

dsat · Post by **dsat** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 12:53 pm

well, luckily for me, i try not to stay too much focused on minimal
all i care about is the music being released, regardless of any label

i do have to admit that i'm generally more excited about other labels than Minus... but minus has a good marketing strategy, which I kind of admire

the sad part of it, is that the general public gets the impression that the whole minimal thing revolves around richie and minus... whereas richie was still playing hard looptechno 5-6 years ago and it's others who have paved the way to what we have now

for me personally, the most groundbreaking label in the whole minimal thang was force inc/mille plateaux... it's sad that they went under
if they were around now, Minus would be in their shade... deservedly

minus may be in the spotlight right now, but they are far from pushing boundaries, but then again, if the product is well packaged, the public doesn't always care about the content... but oh well... it's been this way for ages... we'll see what's left once the minimal hype is on it's last legs

Shadi Megallaa · Post by **Shadi Megallaa** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:17 pm

I dunno why everyones sweating it so much.. who cares if they are the Get Physical of the minimal scene.. there are plenty of labels, and plenty of releases coming out all the time.. If you don't like it, don't buy it.. even better, if you don't like it MAKE IT!!! I don't know about all of you but it seems like I have to go thru so many of the new releases to find something that blows my mind.. oh well, thats why i'm spending my time making music..

TroySilver · Post by **TroySilver** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 4:53 pm

it's just coz it's quite a pain to deal with! and it's not clear whether it's totally worth it yet...

it's a new medium of distribution so it's not perfect yet, on both side of the chain:
- the tools (beatport, and all other mp3 stores, there's barely any difference betzeen them) are not totally adapted to the needs of the labels, there are glitches in the process of putting your tracks online, it's sometimes tough to choose a release date, the process is far from being mistake-free and mistakes are very difficult to get corrected a posteriori etc. etc.
- on the other hand, labels are not fully ready to deal with this distribution medium; and it's the same as with everything else, to make it "profitable", you need a strong marketing strategy adapted to this new medium, which is sometimes a bit too much to ask for small labels...

all this will evolve very fast in the next few years (or even months), and it will only get better!

Why is it a pain to deal with? I'm not being confrontational, I'm just curious why this method is such a pain, so to speak. I really was sort of unaware there was such a huge setup.

It sounds like you're saying their "quality" is in question? Right? From the outside looking in, it seems to me like getting the master online would be a simple process considering the quality of the equipment available to rip MP3s direct from vinyl.

As for the release date, why not synchronize it with the vinyl release? Apple does this with iTunes for mainstream CD releases and they seem to do it well.

I mean, I do my own conversions of records to MP3s using FinalScratch and they come out indistinguishable from my records. And this is played through my studio monitors, let alone some big shitty PA in a club where you'd never be able to tell.

I've also downloaded hundreds of tracks from BeatPort and I've only had one or two "questionable" tracks as far as noise/quality went. (And they were both older recordings, FWIW.)

I can see the initial setup being a pain, but IMO the advantage of BeatPort far overshadows the standard problems associated with collecting vinyl.

mokaz · Post by **mokaz** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 7:00 pm

Thomas D and Jack Thomas wrote:this is the best topic ever. oh and btw, anybody who claims they're doing 4,000 of the minimal sht is completely full of it. People always lie about how many copies they really sell. Dealing with distributors, they'll sometimes leak numbers about bigger labels and the numbers they are reporting are 1/2 to 3/4 of 3-4,000. And distributors also usually say the label has sold more than it really does.

Agree, 1200 copies with that kinda things is a hell of alot. Although i'm not talking here about m_ (you know the rest)...

mokaz · Post by **mokaz** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 7:07 pm

TroySilver wrote: ...but IMO the advantage of BeatPort far overshadows the standard problems associated with collecting vinyl.

My vinyl collection can handle a harddrive crash...