Sunday, January 22, 2006

An earnest kvetch: I want my Spem TV!

< andyrooney> Have you noticed how if something is under 10 minutes you can buy it for 99 cents on itunes and if it's over, it's album only? This is sort of reasonable, I guess, except it starts seemig weird when for instance recordings of Spem in Alium range from 9:46 to 12:19 (which is a little shocking in itself) and the 9 minute one (The Sixteen under Harry Christophers, only here perhaps they are The Forty or does that sound too much like malt liquor?) is 99 cents, which is fine if you like it best, and not fine if the one with the most compelling snippet belongs to Chapelle du Roi under Alistair Dixon which clocks in at 10:07 and therefore carries a "view album" tag, like the "seasonal price" line in a menu that tells us, "if you have to ask, you can't afford it." View album isn't a price, it's a command, one would say if one talked to software. Isn't there a way, one would say if one pleaded with software, for me to buy the extra 8 seconds that put this bad boy over the top? Again, this is understandable: if a track takes up a quarter of an album, they're losing money to sell it for a buck. But, eh, why not sell it for two bucks maybe? There are limited instances in which you can buy works within cd's, but mostly if they're a set of short tracks and one longer one that's not for individual sale I think, like the "vier letzte Lieder" (retail value: $4.46! I feel like Bob Barker.) But in the case of Spem in Alium and I suspect many other things, you're on your own. I WANT SPEM and if you go quoting me around town on that, please type carefully. < /andyrooney, only I guess he wasn't so much with the sperm jokes>

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'd be happy to send you a recording thereof as soon as my hard drive is brought back to life via some dark necromancy...