“RELAPSE ALUMNI”: RELAPSE RECORDS’ GREATEST ALBUMS ARE NOW ON BANDCAMP

This is the future. Other metal labels… are you paying attention?

Relapse Records has finally finished compiling a huge collection of their most famous releases, 86 in all, on Bandcamp. All are available for purchase in a variety of high-quality download formats (including lossless FLAC) for only $9.99, and many are streamable in their entirety. Classic albums by Mastodon, High on Fire, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Neurosis, Amorphis, Nile, Today is the Day, Suffocation, Incantation, Origin, Unsane and many, many more are all posted. Full album streams are not available for some of the biggest records (i.e. Mastodon), but the ability to have this music as high-quality files should be a boon to all involved.

iTunes and Amazon are still great outlets for labels and music fans, and there is no reason for labels to leave them. Ditto for physical retail, which is still pushing on. But why not diversify and post up your label’s wares on Bandcamp to take advantage of all the additional features they offer? The service has a no-bullshit interface, the ability to set the price you want to sell your music for (instead of iTunes’ and Amazon’s rigid $0.99 and $0.89 pricing structure), the ability to allow buyers to choose the price they pay (with a minimum floor, if you like), a multitude of file formats including lossless, embeddable widgets, full track and album streams, and more. iTunes and Amazon offer none of those things. Best of all, consumers seem to really like Bandcamp.

Tell me again, why isn’t every label on Bandcamp? Labels are always complaining about how tough times are, but here’s easy money being left on the table.

-VN