The Great Digital B-Sides Debate

[shaneoftheroad]

Looks like Third Man has released Jack's singles in digital format with B-sides included.

"Freedom at 21" b/w "Inaccessible Mystery" -
http://smarturl.it/freedomat21

"Sixteen Saltines" b/w "Love Is Blindness" -
http://www.smarturl.it/saltines

"Love Interruption" b/w "Machine Gun Silhouette" -
http://smarturl.it/jwloveinterruption

I wish they wouldn't do this. I understand making the A-sides available because those are in the spotlight. But I've always seen the non-album B-sides as something special for the physical record. Some of you will understand what I'm saying, some will punch me in the face. Let the Great Digital B-Sides Debate begin!

[curseofhalos]

I totally agree. B-sides on physical products only! I love collecting Smashing Pumpkins singles for this reason. You get little gems that you would never hear otherwise.

[Stl_ben]

Yeah only have the B-sides on vinyl, where people instantly rip them / up load them / and share them for free all over the internet....
.....Let's make sure the bad doesn't get any of the digital money!

[bkramer10]

As a label that pushes the physical music factor, its surprising they would put b-sides out digitally. Should be on vinyl only

[shaneoftheroad]

Yeah only have the B-sides on vinyl, where people instantly rip them / up load them / and share them for free all over the internet....
.....Let's make sure the bad doesn't get any of the digital money!

You forgot the

[shaneoftheroad]

And before today you had to search fairly deep into the internet to find "Inaccessible Mystery".

[rsimms3]

Are the JW singles the first TMR singles to include the B-Sides for sale digitally on iTunes?

[shaneoftheroad]

Are the JW singles the first TMR singles to include the B-Sides for sale digitally on iTunes?

Wow. I just checked. No. Every TMR single has B-Sides for sale digitally. Didn't know that.

[woodisgood]

A positive here is that Rob will get a decent-size check each year from BMI for "Machine Gun Silhouette." If you've released something that makes money each year, those checks can seem like found money after a few years. Definitely helps fund my record buying.

[shaneoftheroad]

Even the re-released Stripes stuff has the B-sides available digitally. Well, I've lost the Great Digital B-Sides Debate. As much as I believe this takes away a bit of the magic of 7" singles, I digress and fly the white flag of surrender.

[dunedin]

I'm pretty sure that these are recent additions to iTunes as the b-sides of the JW singles were not included on first release. "Love Is Blindness" was available digitally on the "Achtung Baby" tribute before 16S was released, and I think both that and "Machine Gun" are on the Japanese version of Blunderbuss.

[achouza]

i see your point about having the b sides as vinyl only,,, agreed that would be cool and feel more special to vinyl purchasers,,,

however what is truly ridiculous is that even when they do release the digital versions, they dont give a download code to the people who bought the vinyl,, so we end up paying 10 bucks (after shipping) to have machine gun silouette on vinyl and if we want to hear it in our car or while doing exercise we have to pay another buck to buy it through itunes,,

i love vinyl and TMR, but they really need to start including download cards for their records

[curseofhalos]

i see your point about having the b sides as vinyl only,,, agreed that would be cool and feel more special to vinyl purchasers,,,

however what is truly ridiculous is that even when they do release the digital versions, they dont give a download code to the people who bought the vinyl,, so we end up paying 10 bucks (after shipping) to have machine gun silouette on vinyl and if we want to hear it in our car or while doing exercise we have to pay another buck to buy it through itunes,,

i love vinyl and TMR, but they really need to start including download cards for their records

I totally agree with this too. I would love digital codes with the vinyl we buy from TMR. They are very inconsistent with the availability of them in the LP.

[rsimms3]

i see your point about having the b sides as vinyl only,,, agreed that would be cool and feel more special to vinyl purchasers,,,

however what is truly ridiculous is that even when they do release the digital versions, they dont give a download code to the people who bought the vinyl,, so we end up paying 10 bucks (after shipping) to have machine gun silouette on vinyl and if we want to hear it in our car or while doing exercise we have to pay another buck to buy it through itunes,,

i love vinyl and TMR, but they really need to start including download cards for their records

How many other labels provide a download code for MP3s for their 7" vinyl singles?

[jrfhoutx]

i see your point about having the b sides as vinyl only,,, agreed that would be cool and feel more special to vinyl purchasers,,,

however what is truly ridiculous is that even when they do release the digital versions, they dont give a download code to the people who bought the vinyl,, so we end up paying 10 bucks (after shipping) to have machine gun silouette on vinyl and if we want to hear it in our car or while doing exercise we have to pay another buck to buy it through itunes,,

i love vinyl and TMR, but they really need to start including download cards for their records

Download codes would be nice, but not an absolute necessity for me personally (and definitely not a make or break deal as far as I'm concerned). As for the digital, I already bought the music once, I'm not paying for it again just so I can have a digital format, I just rip my vinyl to a digital format. I'm already listening to the vinyl anyway, and it doesn't usually take much longer after that to cut the tracks out and encode it (except for that third singles comp, that took forever)...

I definitely agree with the vinyl only b-sides though, but then I guess you could argue that it's similar to the ltd release vs. unlimited release. I guess while it would be nice to see the b-sides only on vinyl, but TMR is a business in the end so however they choose to make their $ is fine by me as long as they keep churning out the vinyl...