Speaking of the underused Sonic Boom Blog (which disappointed Wiseblood yesterday) – here’s something they could – no – should have written about:

On Saturday I was walking around with the Wise one and stopped into the store to peruse the shelves. (The walk through their door is always a slippery slope angled sharply toward gluttony and a total abandonment of self control.)

I saw this record
(Blonde Redhead’s ’23′ )

By ‘record’ I mean vinyl. I don’t own a ton of vinyl, I’m not all collector or snobby or hobbyist about it. But after this find, I certainly could become a frequent vinyl buyer.

See – on this record cover (a 4AD release) was a sticker that said ‘Free mp3 download of entire album at 4AD.com, just use the enclosed code.’
It took a fraction of a second.
Sold.
Better packaging than a CD (what cover art doesn’t look better, bigger?).
Direct mp3 download.

I’m hoping this is the new direction, at least in vinyl releases. I’m becoming less and less of a CD fan these days, they just lie around stacking up once converted to mp3s. The record store clerk didn’t seem to think this was so common yet, but also agreed that it is a no-brainer marketing technique that should be commonplace.

BTW – 4AD has few but surprisingly great bands of late! TV on the Radio?? Mountain Goats? Wolf & Cub? Beirut? I used to only know them for the Pixies!