jmelrose wrote:
sltchocum wrote:
Heres the thing. When you spend good hard-earned money on this sort of thing you want it to be perfect (or at least I do, for collecting reasons). It's just disappointing when you wait so long for something like this and then when it gets there its nothing but a total mess when you open it.No, no, absolutely. The product definitely should arrive in good shape. No doubt. My issue is with the complaints about the "We Steal" ep not being "polished" packaging. So many artists put these little EPs out as lossy digital only, and I hate it because I like the lossless audio. More are catching on that lossless (FLAC) is worth it to many people to download and even pay a little extra for. So... had the EP been released digital only with NO packaging, there would have been no complaints about the packaging. (ie: an iTunes-only release.) Yet, the packaging isn't all pretty and polished and suddenly that detracts from what the focus of the product should be, which is Mraz's music. So, on a home burned CD or not, the music sounds great and I take a lot more excitement over the better fidelity than I take frustration from the CD sleeve being stamped for its artwork and the CD label "art" being someone hand-writing the title in funky letters. Once it's in the CD player, I don't care about the packaging, and if it's going to end up on an ipod anyways (as someone suggested they were better of just getting it from iTunes), I don't see why the packaging is a noteworthy issue. Do many people listen to it on an ipod and carry the CD around to look at anyways?
I'm ALL for artist accountability and treating fans well. I have waged war with U2's fan club for very shoddy treatment of the fans, and I hold U2 responsible for that experience for not keeping a better eye on things. If he artist farms out a part of his/her/their interactions with their fans, they better be hands on or they'll be the ones facing the backlash even if they didn't cause the issues directly. In this case, I just can't get worked up over this minor a packing issue. Pearl Jam released an entire line of bootless with similarly bare-bones packaging, but y'know... I'd rather have access to a LOT of cheaply packaged but great music than have releases less frequently for fear of backlash from "fans" over the sleeve not being as pretty as they want it to be.
I know that the focus is the music, but if I go to show somebody the "We Steal Things - EP" I know that my first reaction would be "thats all?" because thats what my reaction was. I just like having professional quality looking packaging since I did pay for the CD. I know that you don't know me and I don't know you, but when it comes to my CD's and DVD's I tend to get have a little bit of OCD. I like things to have things in there own case and I like the case to be in good shape so it can protect whatever is inside. Yes, I am kind of a nerd when it comes to that stuff, haha
. But, thats all I have to say on the subject because I don't wanna become a whiner. Lets just get back to talking about the album. 
