Vast Active Library and Information Science blog. From a recent library science graduate in Wellington, New Zealand. A focus on reference and current awareness tools and issues, especially free, web-based resources.

 
OK, I was browsing through Kazaa recently, and I came across a whole bunch of Spiritualized tracks that I hadn't seen before. So, being a big fan, I naturally start downloading them. Turns out they're from a forthcoming album. Cool. So I cue them in Winamp and start to play. First song: a 30 second intro, then a fade to nothingness for the rest of the track. Hmm, that's odd. Second track: same thing. Download another version of the first song: same thing. Obviously the record company putting fake MP3s up to discourage bootleggers. All right, I accept that what I'm doing is illegal, but I'm a big fan, and I would have bought the album day of release, anyway (why listen to MP3s on my rubbish PC speakers when I can buy the CD?). So all that the record company have done is lose some of my goodwill.

What really annoys me is that they can spend time putting up fake versions of new songs, but they can't be bothered updating the official site to even mention that there's a forthcoming album....Or doing something about the godawful design - hey, let's put white text on a grey background - that'll be easy for people to read. Weird designs work on donniedarko.com, not on what's supposed to be an informative site. 10 bucks says the fan sites are 100 times more informative, as usual.

| posted by Simon at 4:25 pm