Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Bear McCreary's Battlestar Blog...

Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary has a must-read post up at his blog, prompted by the italicized blog-comment I've copied below...

“Bear, No offense, but I’ve been spoiled by itunes. I’ve come to appreciate the ability to purchase a song from an album without having to purchase the whole album. That being said, and again, no offense, but I really have no interest in buying your album to hear one song. I really dig your version of “…Watchtower”, but not enough to go through the hassle of purchasing the whole album online. I have to admit that I would probably like your other music too, but, that’s besides the point, I would love to purchase your version of “All along the Watchtower”, but if it’s not available as a single, you’ll lose my support. I’ll just wait till someone uploads it to a bit torrent site and get it for free. Wouldn’t you rather get paid for your work?”

Click to Bear's site for his response, but me, I'm just impressed with this poster's brass. In a note to the guy who actually recorded the song, the comments-writer blithely tells Bear that since Bear hasn't released his recording of Watchtower on i-tunes, well, then he's just going to steal it. Yes, the unbelievable hassle of ordering the CD on-line (a click or two on Amazon, see below, I'll make it easy for you!) forces him to rip off music from a composer he theoretically enjoys. And then, and here's where the sheer brass comes into play, he has the audacity to blame Bear for forcing him to take this step.

Let's translate that into other retail situations. You're in a 7/11 and you really want a Twinkie, but just one Twinkie and all they have are the two-packs. So you tell the clerk, "no offense, but I only want one Twinkie, and since you don't sell the one-Twinkie packs, and it's a hassle to go to a store that stocks them, I'm just going to steal one. Better get those one-Twinkie packs ASAP, though, because I'm sure you'd rather get paid for your product."

Bear's response to the poster is considerably more... nuanced. Check it out at:

http://www.bearmccreary.com/blog/?p=240

And if you're ready to go through the "hassle" of ordering Bear's CD online, here's a link:

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