Tuesday 23 June 2009

Gouge away

Pixies' Minotaur boxset
With the crumbling economy around us and the music industry reduced to suing anyone that resembles a fan, it's a good question how bands are prepared to survive.

If you're hooked in like Nine Inch Nails, you go full guns ablazing into that good internet night, doing it right - giving albums away, but having various flavours of physical medium ready for the diehards.

If you're more traditional, you forgo the freebie release and jump straight into the massive bloody wallet-emptying boxset, released in limited quantities. This seems to be the route most acts are going down. Depeche Mode had their £60 "Sounds of the Universe" boxset with CDs, DVDs and booklets, Pet Shop Boys had "Yes" released on 11 separate 12" records in a batch of 300 copies (for £300).

Now, Pixies are releasing "Minotaur," a retrospective of their main output from the 80s and 90s. As is the democratic way, there are two formats for the discerning fan - a deluxe edition for $175 and a limited edition for just under $500. Both formats include the album in a number of formats - vinyl, CD and blu-ray - as well as other extras.

In an interview with Wired, lead singer Black Francis described the forthcoming release as a price-justified "objet d'art". He went on to joking state that if you're not that big a Pixies fan, download it for free off the net.

It seems to be a good time to be a music fan with deep pockets.
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