Sumerian Records Owner Continues Anti-Piracy Crusade
Sumerian Records owner Ash Avildsen has continued his recent anti-piracy crusade (this time it appears to not entirely be a marketing ploy for Born Of Osiris) with the video segment below:
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COMMENTS
First off, you have to realize the owner of sumerian is opening a record store in LA which he is calling a “lifestyle” store.
Secondly, are we to believe this guy is paying Misha Mansoor’s rent every month?
Also, there is no reason to make music videos anymore. MTV barely plays them, and it’s a direct to youtube or metalinjenction.
Marketing…does anyone really pay attention to ads? Most people get their news on their favorite bands from the band pages (FB, and such) or like this site. This expense isn’t needed for labels and is really a waste of time. I don’t think running an ad in Revolver is really going to increase sales more than an article would.
I’m not condoning piracy, but I think Labels need to realize they are an unnecessary part in the music equation. Phyiscal copies are soon becoming a thing of the past with Itunes and whatnot.
Plus, I’d rather give my money straight to the band than a middleman(the record Label). I support Direct downloads from the artists.
If there was no marketing at all, you wouldn’t even know what to download.
like I pointed out, band news, either from a band’s FB or news sites like this point out when a new album is coming out, no need for advertising.
The guy has convictions and is actively doing something about them. It’s hard not to respect that on some level. It’s too bad his cause is a lost one. If anything, he just proved how inefficient the record industry is. If his industry is to survive, it will have to undergo some serious reform. Cut all spending on pointless music videos. If I want to hear a song on youtube, I’m much more prone to click on one from some random person that uploaded it with a still frame of the album cover, as opposed sitting through an ad on the record label’s channel just for a stupid video. Free advertising is the best form these days when promoting a band. Twitter, facebook, myspace and blogs like theprp do way more than anything else. For example, if I close my eyes I couldn’t tell you what bands are currently being advertised on this site, but I could tell you some blog headlines for sure. As far as touring, expenses come out of the band’s royalties and are beneficial to record companies because it promotes album sales. It’s a mutualistic relationship. If your bus breaks down, sure, they’ll pay for it initially, then take that out of what you would have made from albums sales. It’s essentially a loan, not some virtuous gift from the record gods. This guy is skewing facts like he’s Fox News.
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For as much as I respect people who take a stand for what they believe in, this guy just seems pissed that he made a bad business decision a few years back. If I had got a loan and purchased my local Blockbuster franchise a few years ago, I’d probably be a pissed off motherfucker right now too, but no amount of campaigning is going to change that.
Well… news sites wouldn’t even know about the bands if there was no marketing. And you wouldn’t know the bands’ facebook sites.
And, by the way: if there was no advertising, news sites like theprp.com would not exist. How the hell would they get any money to cover the costs for servers and so on?
clearly the dude is only making a stink because he knows itll land on every single metal website and get tons of people talking and aware that born of osiris has a new shittastic album coming out.
@vapour I dunno about you but I have this thing called a job.
I think it’s funny when people claim physical formats are going to disappear. How long has vinyl been “irrelevant?”
@ revstevo And you’d put your hard-earned money into a website instead of running it on money that comes in practically all by itself?
I always support underground bands, either through their record label’s site or their official merch online store.
@Dehumanizer: Kudos to you! bands need more people like you!
Now….
This goes out to all the haters and non-supporters of Sumerians/Ash’s efforts with this clip…….
Are there bands that have become successful all on their own? SURE!
However, the majority of the time, most bands couldn’t have sold as many cd’s, brought as many people to shows, booked an international tour or offered as much merch to sell at their shows to keep them going if it weren’t for labels like SUMERIAN RECORDS! I know this because I have been and continue to be friends with many bands today. IT’S NOT EASY! Some bands cannot tour as often as they would like to because of the financial impact even a short tour has on its band members. Going on tour means being able to take time off work or, in some cases, QUIT A JOB, just to go on tour. It also means a band needs to have enough money for food, lodging, and to pay for gas just to get to the next gig. The purpose of a label, like SUMERIAN RECORDS is to propel bands to the next level without a band giving everything up just to support their next album. Additionally, most bands simply do not have the resources or ability to successfully promote themselves in the way that a label can. IT’S SIMPLY A CRAP LOAD OF WORK! But hey, you don’t have to take my word (or a label’s word) for it…..very simply, just go ask any member of a semi-successful band if they feel like having the support of a label was a waste of time. Peace out!
Instead of clinging to old models of how the music industry used to operate, why not adapt, change your business model, and find a new way to make money off of the art you sell?
I respect the guy, but piracy is not going to change unless the feds start arresting and fining people, which I doubt will happen any time soon. If people can get something for free, they’re going to get it for free. It has nothing to do with a moral obligation to give artists and their management more money.
Or maybe if bands didn’t sound like they all came out of the same fucking factory nowadays (I’m looking at you, Sumerian Records), people would be more inclined to pay money for something they feel is original and merits a financial reward.
My point? Quit bitching and adapt. There’s still plenty of money to be made.
Vautour – per chance, how many of these Florida Grapefruit ads have you clicked on? Advertising/Marketing/Promotion are two different beasts. Tell me, how many Monster Energy TV commercials or magazine ads have you seen? They choose to shift their budget towards promotion and sponsorship, and it has done absolute wonders for them. I hear about a good number of bands VIA them touring with bands that I am already familiar with. I found out about Parkway Drive ‘cuz they were on my Warped Tour stop years ago, and I’ve been a big fan since.
maybe if this guy didn’t facilitate a whole bunch of shitty bands getting their awful music out there I’d actually want to pirate the stuff on his label. probably wouldn’t want to buy it, though.
ash, dude… it must be tough trying to put out fires in hell. but I salute you. and buy my shit from itunes. bonus points for signing Animals as Leaders.
w/e, I buy my shit. if I torrent the cd you better believe not only am i at the show when they come through but always buy merch too.
yea well i’d just like to add this, if you want to support a band buy merch from them on the road. i’ve spent sweaty nights on the road eating ramen and tuna and asking kids for places to crash after playing shows and i can assure you that when our rear differential broke for the third time, that shit came out of our merch money and not indianola’s. born of osiris isn’t on the website bitching because truthfully they don’t give a shit. you put the money in their hands and don’t waste your time believing that just because i see this shitty haunted ad on this site that i’m even remotely interested in buying it….
besides no one is gonna pirate this cd anyways these guys choke dick.
I don’t even know how to torrent! haha, there you go ASH!
ps.
@posi kill. what band on indianola? if you don’t mind. a friend of mine was on Korea (err. spelling) who flirted with signing to that label and Monday in London (err. friends but not a fan)
i hate to even say it but glory of this. not my proudest moment haha. i remember the monday in london guys though.
To everyone crying the ‘Record Labels need to adapt to new models of selling music’ – Do you really think we’re that retarded? We try new things every single day to try and make a living but piracy wins every time. Something as simple as this video is actually turning heads and showing impressionable kids what is going on. Piracy is literally killing band careers and ‘buying merch and a concert ticket when they’re in town’ is not a good enough excuse for supporting your favorite bands anymore. They will not have merch or be ‘in town’ unless you buy the art they originally created for you; the album. It’s like giving gifts to your cousins and spitting in their mother and fathers faces during Christmas time. The label needs to survive, too. 90% of the people who work in the music industry love music more than anything, this is their life the same way it is for a band they work for. We are not money hungry scumbags and some of us honestly make less than sandwich makers at Whole Foods (NOT kidding) – So obviously, I see why people are jaded by the likes of Lady Gaga and Metallica, but they wouldn’t have a career either were it not for labels.
lmao @ piracy killing band’s careers
Piracy is MAKING band’s careers. Most of these bands wouldn’t get any exposure whatsoever without it. They owe their fanbase to piracy. Wake up, man!
It’s really a simple formula. If you like the band, you support them and buy their merch and CD’s/MP3′s via iTunes…BUT, that’s even if you can afford it. A lot of people nowadays are struggling to make ends meet being that the upper echelon of individuals out there are all attempting to improve on the shitty economy. I’m just lucky that I don’t smoke cigarettes or, similarly, throw my cash away on dumb things that’ll ultimately end up killing you more than likely. I’ve got an extensive library of CD’s starting all the way back from when Metallica and Megadeth put out their records on CD’s for crying out loud. I didn’t really buy too many though at that point, being that I was young and didn’t have a job to support my lust for entertainment products yet, haha. Ever since the black album came out (Metallica) I’ve been buying these things like it’s going out of style. I’ve downloaded a few songs in the past out of curiosity but would still buy it when it landed in stores. The only album that I downloaded in its entirety was Between the Buried and Me’s “Colors” only because I was so antsy to hear it but when I bought it on CD, I deleted the MP3′s.
Well that’s the big issue here, Frog…He’s scared he’s gonna lose his job and obviously nobody likes to see anybody lose his/her job. It’s not fun, especially if you’re making a decent salary. The monetary system sucks balls. It’s stupid. It’s just paper with numbers on it. Everything’s driven by money. This’ll probably never change.
You should all go and read “The Future of Music” by David Kusek and Gerd Leonhard.
I download shit all the time. But if I like it, when I have the money, I give it straight to the band or the label if it’s one I like. I’m not going to blow my money at FYE or Best Buy. I’m sorry if that makes dudes who work for labels upset, but sorry, we don’t all get to hear this shit for free. Some of us do what we can with the little extra money we get. Deal with it.
@ posi kill: a few of them were assholes but I have some solid bro’s from both bands. gonna check out your old one now. party!
no luck finding them
Ash is concerned because all of the bands on his label (SUMERIAN) whose albums get leaked and passed around the internet a lot. The lack of popularity with the “core” scene doesn’t result in a lot of album sales, along with the small portion of fans who do download albums. Ash does throw a lot of shows (mostly in southern california though, that asshole, throw some love to us up north) and tours, such as california metalfest and the Thrash And Burn festival which definitely help and endorse bands on his label, thus increasing popularity and album sales, but really, would asking alexandria really get anywhere without the owner of their label hosting the shows and having them headline? I don’t think so.
The music coming out is mostly guesswork. The music videos, previews, reviews, and clips on amazon are like watching a teaser or a review for a movie…as forrest gump says “You never know what you’re gonna get.” I always watch out when bands put out a single, and especially when I see the track listing and its the first track, because when bands put the first song as a single the rest of the album is wack. Do I download albums for free? Yes, I do. IF I like them, I go buy them. The problem for me is the ‘core’ scene is dead where I live and if I want to go to shows I have to drive at least 2 hours minimum, so I depend on cds/downloads to listen to new music. I am not a guy who hears one song and says “I have to have this album!” I would like to hear multiple songs, not 3 before the record hits stores. Yes, bands do put up full album streams and I greatly appreciate that…THOUGH its usually after the cd has hit the internet already.
From Ash’s point of view, it must be hard. You front a band so much money to pay for good recordings, mixing, stage props, merch, vans, trailers, all that other shit they need to go out on the road and when someone steals the product that essentially he paid for, I would get pissed off too. It is going to happen, and sure by shutting down some torrent sites some of the leeching would stop, but not all. What is to stop 1 friend from buying a cd, loaning it to their friends to rip it onto their hard drives and over and over? Not much. The police have much more going on than to catch music thieves. There’s not much more to be done about advertising and marketing for deathcore bands and the like because, let’s just face it, not a lot of people like to hear screams in music. Quit crying about the couple thousand who do and embrace the fans who pay you to hear your bands.
Well said dude. Yea I just went out tonight to buy the Born Of Osiris “limited edition” at FYE with the 3 bonus tracks…whelp, guess what? It’s just 3 tracks off said album produced/mastered/whatever by another dude….that is all. Talk about being suckered into buying something that you thought “wow cool, looks like I’ll be getting something worthwhile” nope. In the end, these motherfuckers are just out to make money. That is ALL they care about. At least if you’re going to market a limited edition, throw a B-side or 2 or maybe a live track or something….instead these faggots at Sumerian thought it would be a cool and exciting idea to reel some fans in to get only stepped on and laughed at. Fuck this motherfucker. I just drove a half hour to the store to get additional garbage. I’d fight his stupid goofy ass right now if I could.
I am now officially a full fledged pirate of the world wide web. How about those apples? You hear me Ash?
he hears you STUCKPIG, and so does everyone else… you are now a full fledged butt-pirate.
I’ve done a few research papers on this, Ash’s numbers are spot on. I think alot of you guys are only hating on him because you feel piracy is justified, and he’s telling you you’re wrong.
Ehh, I was just a little fired up from driving all the way back and forth. Can’t a guy blow off some steam once and awhile? I could’ve just gotten the regular edition right down the road but thought the limited edish would be more badass…but to no avail. Plus the traffic in this town can suck balls at times. Then you got all the dorks who act like they’re shooting a scene for the next Fast and the Furious whizzin on by like a cool guy with his fitted Yankees ball cap equipped on his cranium…only to be stopped by a red light 100 feet down the road. Dumb…fucking….people out there. Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for jerkoffs.
Metallica in the early days got a huge following because of kids copying cassette tapes and passing them along to their friends. It only got really bad cause instead of having to know someone that bought it now it’s up online so some dude in Cali could have bought it then upload it and some dude in NY could DL it. I could see how internet screwed that. but also if you’re shit is really good people will support it. if your shit is mediocre then you bet your ass is in trouble. So better you spend those extra 6 months tighting your shit then putting out a half ass record. I’ve ripped shit off friends before and eventually i buy the record (if it’s good).
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Ever had a band you like put out a single and you like it only to find out when you bought the record that the whole thing sucks except for that song? That’s what happens when labels/bands put what you call “fillers” and the one or 2 good songs to push the record. So in that sense Karma is a bitch.
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I’m going to stick with I hate every band on this label. Couldn’t care less. Sign Wolves In The Throne Room and we’ll talk.
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