Free digital downloads with vinyl records?
I’ve just read on the prefix blog that Merge is offering free MP3 files for everyone who purchases the vinyl version of The Clientele’s new album.
Vinyl purists who pick up a copy of The Clientele’s newest LP, Strange Geometry, will receive a CD insert inside the LP with a coupon entitling the bearer to a free one-time download of the full album, in digital mp3 format, from the cavernous electronic vaults of Merge Inc.
We often thought about something like this here at 2nd rec, because personally (from a customer’s point of view) we would love that. Christophe and I definitely prefer vinyl, but there are often situations where a digital format comes in pretty handy (it’s such a pain in the ass to carry a vinyl-walkman + record case with you all the time!).
We haven’t done it yet, because there are some technical issues to be resolved first, and furthermore the German royalty collection society isn’t very flexible when it comes to ideas like this (we would have to pay mechanical royalties for two copies instead of one and i guess there would be some tedious paperwork involved). But maybe we can figure out some solution for our upcoming releases.
Would you be interested in this? Would you make use of such an offer?