The Vinyl Record Mirage - Part 4

How to Win Friends & Influence People Works in UGBM About as Well as a Bible

This is part 4 of 6 from this series. This is designed to be an educational resource and if one doesn’t want to learn anything they shouldn’t be reading. I’d request any feedback be kept until the final installment is posted as additional questions might be answered.

Bear in mind requests for any stories here to be removed will be ignored.

The other parts can be read here: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

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The realities of underground black metal vinyl production you are not aware of. (cont.)

R-9: The maturity level of the Black Metal Underground community is roughly the equivalent of a third grader overexposed to technology with all commonsense self-help strategies just bouncing off of them.

The remaining “realities” discussed in this article will dwell extensively on the subject of dealing with other people within the UGBM scene/space even though much of this information is not going to be a surprise to anybody who can think rationally. This section will be a lengthy read that will be the most memorable part of this entire publication and likely the most important concept to illustrate my overall points about how this entire vinyl record boom is not what it would appear to be. One may ask at this point what this has to do with record manufacturing? The answer is everything because getting pressings of your music done or stock is a matter of dealing with very difficult people. What is outlined in this section speaks to the motivation behind why these records are all being pressed and the drama behind them.

Everyone whom you deal with (in either UGBM or life) that could be considered difficult (I do not use this word as an insulting capacity but in a truthful non-aggressive manor as people are just difficult) falls into two groups, “Up” & “Down” people. What I am about to explain has absolutely nothing to do with music at all beyond setting a framework (some of this was illuded to in “Reality” #4) for the things which I will discuss next that do involve recording manufacturing. If you walk away from this article with one thing, it should be this concept of “Up” & “Down” people as it will likely serve you very well in life. For the purposes of argument, it’s worth establishing that I define Intelligence as more of a spectrum, as one can do complex nuclear physics but be unable to understand how to work a socket wrench and vice/versa.

First “Up” people, or people who have a higher mental energy level that usually annoys everybody because it is just “too much” for people to process which in some cases actually can cause major tragic misunderstandings resulting in death. On the surface, while one would think these types of people are the most difficult to deal with, they are the easiest once you understand how to deal with them. It’s worth stating that IMO behavior like this is more common and normally accepted within society when the “Up” person is a woman (most of the people who figure out how to deal with these issues from a self-improvement perspective are women) as like everything related to this are concepts not associated with masculinity. When men engage in tactics that go into the realm of the “Up” person, people of lower acumen usually assume these people to be autistic, weird, annoying or just odd and people usually don’t make time for them or try to exclude them from groups rather than understand them. Characteristics of “Up” people are usually very high energy, dedication, being overly excited about something and a lack of understanding that their eccentric behavior is just “too much” for some people. The worst thing for these people is a bunch of drama or being in a very dramatic environment as they feed off/become energized by that energy and then behave in a way that could been seen to others as extremely dramatic.

Sadly, “Up” people usually get bullied a lot by everyone else (usually online) who can’t understand them and/or are concerned with their appearance among others/who they associate with in social situations. This is a negative because “Up” people hypersensitive to people’s perceptions/general drama/energy (something as basic as watching a segment on Television with people whooping about with high energy can rile these people up) so thus they eventually recede from public spaces after much misery because when these people are riled up by all the energy, they behave with a personality other people can’t process. What starts all of this is a poorly adjusted childhood (usually with high anxiety or lousy (not always abusive, just bad at their jobs) parents) leading “Up” people to fail to set up or understand boundaries until they are forced to learn these things after repeated negative outcomes. This usually manifests itself as anxiety disorders (often mistaken for/coupled with attention disorders) and a failure or refusal to realize that they can get into an overstimulated state which then subsequently becomes the source of all their problems. Once the energy level comes down, then they usually can reign in their behavior, however what happens often is a “Down” person will become fixated on elements of their behavior, then become aggressive with them which doesn’t fix the issue and just makes hostile conflicts with these people. Medications, management of their environment (less technology is better, as technology is neurotic by design), self-help/well-being studies, sobriety (especially limiting/abstaining from Caffeine consumption) & simple transparent (“UP” people are very transparent with their genuine self being who shows up, which pisses people off who can’t be this way) communication are usually what helps these people. A very illustratable example of a problematic “Up” person would be Cole Allen Thomas, who was a game designer that got so riled up by the media that he somehow thought that he could shoot up the White House Correspondence Dinner. I honestly think (and I don’t need to do a podcast on this to explain it) that if somebody could’ve simply talked to that guy enough, he would’ve either not gone to DC or could’ve been institutionalized so he wouldn’t have gone there.

How you deal with these people is to simply have private reasoned communication (ideally well before the problem will impact them negatively) with them from a calm yet authoritative position so they can decide on their own how or if they want to alter their behavior. If they refuse to do anything after a problem is explained to them in a manor they have been able to process it and confirm to you they have processed it (not just dumping it on them in the heat of the moment) is the only time you need/should use anything like force, aggression or threatening them. The only way these people will do anything is if they decide to and change will only happen if they come to the decision that change must happen in a way that will take place (so you still likely won’t get your desired outcome) on their terms. Aggression (the default male response) or retaliation absolutely does not work with these people. All aggression does with them is simply entrench their behaviors and while you may get the result you want in the short term, it will be a problem in the long term (in some cases decades later) when these people either retaliate (unless they are smart enough to understand the futility in escalation) in response or have simply moved on. Ideally when dealing with these people optimal tactics include (but are not limited to) things such as replacing posturing with transparency, making sure proper boundaries are established, they are in the right environment and respect these people’s independence. I find myself to be one of these people, I identify more with people like this and I would rather deal with these people. “Up” people while less prevalent in UGBM are usually more long-term focused, can be instructed and are more loyal (unless they burn out) than “Down” people. While this may not make sense unless to see gender concepts as energy (positive & negative, there are only two genders in this sense), “Up” people are more IMO on the Positive/Feminine side.

“Down” people on the other hand are the absolute worst people to deal with and sadly make up a vast majority of the difficult people you’ll run into out there. This is the negative/masculine side (the word negative is used in the sense of being destructive) of that “gender/energy” equation. Many of the characteristics of these people are in aggressive areas typically defined as and assumed to be masculine, when they are the actions of immature little boys. Please note that women/girls can and do behave in these patterns with respect to their biological make up. Individuals who would be of the “Down” variety are people who suffer from a usually total lack of positive mental energy such as mentally ill people, narcissists, people engaging in destructive (drugs, booze, sex addiction, technology addiction etc.) behaviors, extremely aggressive people, dumb people, people who are otherwise cognitively impaired, people who are engaged in unsophisticated criminal activities or just about anybody who could be summarized by all their problems being their own fault due to stupid decisions they willfully make. The metaphysical characteristics of these people are almost always hive-minded (which means they just base their viewpoints off stuff they consume shallowly) awaiting direction from someone above them (the “Queen/King Bee”) behavior, heavily driven by the appearances of something, quick to become fixated on stuff that to everyone else is nothing and operate only in the short term as long term thinking requires a critical thinking capacity that these people don’t have. Whereas “Up” people are more out of the box, “Down” people are almost always extremely cookie cutter people who are almost “paint by numbers” copies of one another. I personally find nothing wrong with these people beyond some of them being unprofessional assholes that are responsible for all the dumbass L.A.R.P (Live Action Roll Playing)/purposeful trolling behavior you run into online. A vast majority of the difficult/(pseudo) elitist people in UGBM are of the “Down” personality type, the rest are just frauds playing up these characteristics like pro wrestlers under the misguided notion it will make them more money/scene points.

Dealing with these people is extremely different than people with an “Up” personality type and it is better to avoid dealing with these people because they are simply too stupid or impaired to care about whatever is a problem. To save you massive heartache you must force yourself to accept these people simply can’t understand anything that doesn’t fit within their predetermined world view or within their immediate sense of self as there is little empathy. Outside of therapy (chances are you are not a therapist), you will never be able to change somebody/institutions trapped in this behavior pattern and the only “forceful” thing outside of a bribe (if they will take it) that works is extremely effective brute force that must completely eradicate or otherwise permanently disable them on the first attempts. If you are like most rational people who would rather avoid any kind of force and for some reason need to alter (not the same as change) a behavior exhibited by a “Down” person, then they must be slowly maneuvered into addressing the behavior themselves or in certain cases (Substance Abuse, Narcissism, Psychosis etc.) willfully decided to seek psychiatric treatment. If you find yourself on wrong side of a “Down” persons wrath, the best way to defend yourself is to never give them the drama/confrontation they want, however this usually a middle ground approach as it doesn’t move the situation in a positive or negative direction, instead negating it.

As can be evident by the tone of my commentary, I would rather not deal with “Down” people. Personally, my honest opinion is that the mental level on display with some of them is that of a drama addicted monkey who can’t function without conflict or general aggression. While “Down” people make great grunts or foot soldiers so to speak if they want to follow the person attempting to lead them these people usually make very poor decisions in a leader setting because they are extremely stubborn and pig headed. The end fate of any “Down” person who does not either heal themselves or attain some kind of self-sufficient autotomy (like a leadership position) is that they are usually discarded when their function is fulfilled by whatever smarter entity was leading them along for their own benefit. A real-world example of a “Down” entity would be the hardliners within the current Iranian government who have bankrupt their country in completely avoidable war and currently hold the global economy hostage through the Strait of Hormuz because they simply refuse to get off on the concept of having a nuclear weapon. This example could be further expanded to include the entire Islamic religion which has refused to go through a reformation period to align their religious structure with the modern world so they can all properly integrate into modern society.

To bring this back to the subject of music (even though this concept can be applied to many settings outside of music), we’re all trapped in this fake reality or matrix (the Mayasabha) that allows for underground music to exist as we know it and this matrix is harmful to both “Up” & “Down” people. While society is only beginning to understand how to treat/deal with “Up” people (who will become a much bigger problem as society evolves) both personality types are extremely aggravated/over stimulated by technology and that will in almost all circumstances make any pre-existing mental illness (one of these people I used to argue with online likely has/had some kind of P.T.S.D) substantially worse. In the event of a problem arising with someone, you should assume that whatever issue which is currently a problem is something that is exaggerated by technology and thus prepare yourself accordingly. People who find themselves engaging in some destructive pattern related to being either “Up” or “Down” should escape by finding offline hobbies (reading fiction helps) to do while basically being unplugged from the internet, understand that you may just be bored and to seek sobriety. One thing that I also feel should be helpful to state in closing is that the reason all these music disputes are so immature (I firmly believe that unless UGBM can get it’s drama under control it will get someone killed (unless you count the murder Avaejee as that, however that wasn’t specifically caused by the internet but an in-person dispute) to the entertainment of everyone) is because people lose sight of how meaningless some of this stuff actually is in the grand scheme of things.

R-10: The most you’ll make off most of these records is a couple hundred or thousand dollars with a massive amount of the people involved in the pressing of UGBM records having no business sense.

This point pretty much explains itself now that I outlined everything above about “Up” ad “Down” personalities. People who are in the middle/basically not difficult are either not plugged into this 24/7 or are more business focused so thus something can be done or problems can be resolved, however in UGBM there are a large amount of people who are not this way. Business oriented people go to the post office on time, plan the pressings correctly and have a vested interest in them being successful with products moving out the door. The downside to all of this is that most business-oriented people do not put up with bullshit that goes with most of the hype driven flashy releases everyone likes so much and thus their products don’t sell either as much or the same way. If one wishes to deal with some of these more difficult people out there the logic is as follows: 1. You must put these people on whatever pedestal they want in the manner they want at the current moment, 2. You must not have enough other things going on to spend the required amount of time and almost always expensive sums of money to satiate them, 3. You must put up with their usually pointless and childish drama without telling anyone about it to protect their reputations, 4. You must do the project entirely to their wishes regardless of how that fits into your vision, 5. Finish eating the shit sandwich to start all over again until your respect for yourself wastes away to nothing. Most reasoned people just go around this postulate which is the only thing that works.

Black Metal is something that logically is very difficult to get to materialize given the people, lack of functioning infrastructure and generally high level of mentally unstable nonsense one encounters. This type of environment usually only attracts hobby enthusiasts, insane people or people who have some other factor driving them beyond making money and thus almost all these projects are losses before they have even been sold. Let’s say you press 100 records, sell them all at a markup of $10 per unit, that is only $1000 USD, which is less after you factor in graphics, the circle of bullshit I outlined above and assumes all the records sell. This amount of money is not enough to justify the work to get it to materialize from the concept of making a profit. I consider myself to be a business minded person (people online made a bunch of memes about this so it must be true) and thanks to the slow economy have found myself needing to build both a book selling operation and another music distribution entity to fund Winter Solace related activities. Many other people find themselves in a similar situation, hence why the main statement of these articles is the futility of pressing black metal records.

R-11: Most long running label owners have developed a kind of Buddhist detachment to their releases.

To not want to live the rest of your life in silence, one must separate the music they like from all the crap that surrounds it. I’m working on reprinting music for somebody who has left the black metal scene, changed his name, switched political sides, found God and likely succumbed to the same mental illness that drove him to make the music that I identified with so much. To facilitate getting this product to the market I must basically separate the physical being that made this music from the image that is created by his music I am releasing, ideally the listeners will need to do this as well when they buy the CD. If somebody has a bad experience with the person who makes an album they like or they learn something negative about it, they usually won’t listen to the music much, if at all anymore and this is far more common to music production than one might think it is.

The cold reality is that all these releases are simply commodities to be transacted in like stocks, bonds or crypto tokens. If someone presses something, they do it to hopefully make money but more so it’s about whatever is being sent by these releases as a message or whatever type of image is being portrayed with people collecting them because they either identify with said message or they feel the value will increase. This factor more than anything else is what determines why a record is pressed and people who can’t grasp this basic principle have no business getting their music pressed onto a vinyl record because one must have a good reason to press/store something that likely will not attain a massive monetary return or sell in its entirety. A music release working or not all congeals down to a combination of the artistic conception of the original product and the business means of putting a release out there, which means that something is usually considered a success based off how many times it’s pressed. Successful well-crafted releases rise to the top and are pressed multiple times in contrast to stuff that may connect with a small audience but fade into obscurity forever with no long-term interest. To navigate that, it is necessary for certain people to detach themselves mentally/spiritually from this stuff to be protect themselves from anything that would tarnish their drive to press onward. I’ve honestly forgotten how many kids I’ve met who have had a bad experience that just drains the passion out of whatever they do and while I am not an elitest by any means, such circumstances usually justify the expression that only the strongest survive.

R-12: None of the labels that compete for your attention get along with each other because they all secretly hate each other with black metal not having enough money in it’s ecosystem to resolve a lot of its conflicts via a court system.

The reason I did this segment last is because I wanted it to be properly weighed by the previous almost 25,000 words so it fully sinks in. The vast majority of what drives the production of these vinyl records or construction of pressing plants (which costs anywhere from 250,000 USD to 1 Mil+) is so that music producers (the correct term for someone who makes the physical product a reality) can like photos of their works on social media. Please feel free to pause reading to let that fully sink in. This isn’t about making money nor is it about pressing quality music (a vast majority of these people (me included) don’t listen to their label’s releases habitually, some do, most don’t), it is about getting your attention, because the only real currency left is attention. If it was about pressing good music, we’d all be pressing 140g black vinyl records with paper covers and if it was about making money, we’d all be doing some other obviously more profitable business ventures. This is also why a vast majority of the conventional logic that allows rational people to get from A to B simply does not work with some of these people out there and thus there is so much drama for something that is basically a hobby that must be a business because of all the money involved.

Many people see their releases similar to little children (because it is something that they put into the world) and behave more like nation states or large business/government bodies (like how people call me Winter Solace, like the label is a person when I’m just a guy who has other people helping him for certain services or acting as representatives) than people. Most of this competition is completely pointless and unhealthy as it just drives people to misery because they either get screwed out of or can’t enjoy the things they want. In certain ways this type of animosity exists within just about every industry that has a lot of flash to it, all the hedge fund guys hate each other and basically control the world economy so you can see how this type of bad ego energy just drives the world. As the full depth of this subject is beyond the scope of this article, I will just limit myself to three specific subjects within this article and should anyone request more information on any specific topic it will be saved for either more of my podcast videos or for a follow up posting about this specific article. Those three subjects are: labels sabotaging each other or denying even retail orders by using a mindset akin to memetic (non-kinetic/physical, the world meme comes from this) guerrilla tactics, nobody being able to get along with each other and the apex of this type of black metal vinyl retardation, paying 1,000 to 5,000 USD to press your own version of something at a loss because you couldn’t get along with the label that released the first version. For the record I have been on both sides of many of these things and I’ m not advocating for any actual changes (as it would take a very big person with almost godlike powers to unify everyone), more just illustrating the obvious. It is also worth stating that black metal doesn’t usually operate at dollar value levels that can be mitigated by courts so it’s basically the wild west whereas other music genres/media industries have more money involved so people can have contracts to protect their interests and the power of the court to provide injunctive relief, along with better trademark protections (including international leverage) to protect intellectual property rights.

Labels will sabotage each other and even deny retail orders to people they either don’t like, who did something that affected them, who they think is going to do something they want to do, could do something they wish they could, somebody who is better than them or because they are simply insane. I’ve had distribution agreements with people that required me to blackball customers for stupid internet stuff (which I didn’t find out about until after the agreement) from buying certain products in my shop. This process never works out as it is intended because the blacklisted customer will just buy it from someone else, download it or abstain from purchasing, which just makes more blowback onto you. The action of somebody denying you something just make you want it even more (I was never an album collector who had to own an album on multiple formats until I refused copies of Kaevum “Ultra” for my distro) at first and the purpose of many of these records being released is just for label owners/distributors to throw their weight around online. The reason behind many of these disputes is also just petty (bands losing label deals because somebody in the band goes to a concert in another metal genre that somebodies ex-girlfriend might have been attending) usually at a level if it were exposed would just be laughable and this is also why you can’t publish pressing plants, help anybody, advertise much in advance or really do anything for the sake of exposing something private to support other people because somebody will leak it (or fake the correspondence) in order to sabotage somebody.

Differences of opinions with people who you consider close contacts (years ago before South American bands being on American & European labels were commonplace, I had one contact ask me if each band I was releasing had solely white contributors (thankfully this has changed)) is also frowned upon because nobody likes people who can think for themselves abstaining from all the drama. In either December of this year or January of next year I will publish the second of what will be a yearly article about Asrar simply because people continue to control the narrative about how that label should be responded to by suppressing alternative viewpoints and much of the semi-public wargaming on how to shut that label down has simply moved to private chat groups. One final story I will tell on this subject is about the label IG Farben (a European label specialized in distribution of materials that are usually illegal to release in Europe) which is an entity under investigation by various Euro-Globalist entities and as such the inner workings of this label can’t ever be publicly disclosed as that knowledge could then by used by these various groups to open up new investigations into whoever they wanted. Years ago, somebody who should know better almost spilled the beans in public about this label simply because they likely felt that me distributing certain IGF releases (including a floppy disc release limited to <20 units) violated some non-existent quality standard. Had this bean spilling taken place the only people who would’ve been impacted by this would’ve been European friends of the person, not me, nor the people buying the release. There is absolutely no positive point to any of this sabotage and it does nothing other than cost people momentum with records or distribution agreements being used to advance these individual dramas that people can’t (I tried to build a bridge to the guy in the IGF story which was rejected, my customers were not interested in this individuals products and I found this person to be somebody whom I felt wouldn’t distribute my releases in the manner I wanted) or are simply unwilling to resolve privately.

One common theory people have to go around some of the difficulties of record production (I may have discussed this above, I’ve been working on this article for weeks) is co-releasing the project with somebody else or outsourcing the formats to other companies, bands will either do this to help or a label will set this up thinking it’ll save money and help the band. There is no “metal brotherhood” and these deals don’t work (most business partnerships last about 5 years) because again, nobody can get along. IMO, the biggest label (IE the one with the most capital/promotional reach, usually also the oldest) should be the only doing the vinyl record project (or a small company should pay a license (I also require small companies to pay me a license for the smaller formats to prevent dysfunctional crap negatively impacting the bands) fee to the label who owns the recording) with the other formats being done by smaller labels to distribute relative within their own circles. This is rooted in region specific licensing that, with exception to countries with import tax issues (Brazil being the only one with a large enough scene to justify doing this) doesn’t work as a wholesale order/postage for a trade or single retail order is still cheaper than pressing something. The one time I facilitated having a bigger label press one of my releases ended with their intermediary being unable to send the band their royalties for several years and I was told when I complained about that to simply “have the [guy of your labels band] go to where the other guys lives and take his records by physical force”, I have since stopped all this type of outsourcing permanently because nobody is going to do this. Other complications are that there usually isn’t a unified consensus on payments for pre-production (who owns album art etc.) which is a hinderance to the bands. Co-releasing is a similar disaster as one party is stuck picking up the mess (I was held liable for $3,000 USD worth of debt a Brazilian “business partner” I had fled at a pressing plant, simply because we worked together with me vouching for him there) and the only time it should ever be used is if one of the labels involved is the band wanting extra copies similar to what Mgla does. All these things disincentivize people simply circulating the products among each other through trade, wholesale or retail purchase and just add to all the tension because people simply can’t get their egos/other issues out of the way (nor should they because this is a hobby) to work together.

Normally a well-adjusted person will when wronged find a way to eventually process the situation and move on with the rest of their life (self-help circles refer to this as the concept of forgiveness which is an odd word choice when one basically just detaches themselves from something) even if that means something like ending contacts with somebody or declining to do something that would potentially bring you monetary gain. Certain entities within black metal (more than you would realize) however can’t grasp this basic concept and decide to retaliate against people, usually out of the masculine response of “I’ll show you!” The two most common means are “logo spoofing” or people pressing their own versions of a release knowing throughout the entire process that it will be a dramatic monetary loss. Logo Spoofing (while beyond the direct scope of this article) is where somebody takes a band or labels logo and puts it on a product that entity didn’t release to muddy the waters with disinformation, open an entity up to legal investigations, or just cause/vent drama. The only way to negate this type of spoofing is legally trademark your entity’s logo, mostly for legal deniability as the party spoofing you have misused copywritten intellectual property, thus putting them in a negative context. As I said above, the dollar amount within black metal is usually one that is underneath a threshold for legal liabilities (this is before you factor in suing somebody in another country) hence why lawsuits usually go nowhere as most small claims courts usually request parties find another way to settle their disputes.

To continue the nation state analogy from the beginning, the “nuclear warhead” of people sabotaging each other is repressing your own version of something another label has released. The thought is that one will do this and flood the market with cheaper versions to thus undercut the market value of a product, potentially leading the company who pressed the first version to close. While smaller companies can close in the face of big monetary losses (I had 3 major ones happen to me around the same timeframe years ago which I’m still recovering from) many black metal companies aren’t conventionally business focused and repressing something out of immature spite doesn’t do anything beyond saying “I paid this amount of money because I hate you so much” to everyone. The person doing this ends up looking like Kim Jong-Un, grandstanding about faulty nuclear bombs they are never going to use (if they successfully launched one, their country would be flooded with ground troops ceasing to exist within an hour) to their starving populations which exactly the level the type of represses I’m describing function at. Repressing something is rooted in concepts like: people redoing bootleg releases, paid licensing deals where a party (ex. Rob Darken) is basically just cashing in on something, paid licensing deals where one party is denied distribution so they just go press their own version, releases that were originally not done correctly, represses or (when I recently had to do this) songs from splits one party was denied access to press, addressing situations where a band is ripped off or the label who did the first pressing closed, which are all reasonable positions. However the unreasonable extremes in black metal are basically hilarious as you will see people repress Asrar releases because they want a version simply with a different labels logo on it or Weltenfraud from the USA proving a perfectly good pressing plant can’t be trusted with copyright integrity by repressing a version of Absurd “Facta Loquuntur” (likely complete with their stupid Steele dossier on black metal drum technique as an insert) over what amounts to a copyright dispute. All the records being repressed like this are basically losses because they are already oversaturated and no new material is being offered, with most of the audience for records being the kind of people that do not need to own multiple versions of everything.

I want to close on this repress subject with this true story, which for the purposes of argument I’ve decided to omit the album name, company names (for disclosure, I also terminated ties with Company B due to other reasons) and I would request that anyone who knows the identities of these entities withhold them from the discussion as people’s drama will overshadow any lessons here. Company A enters into an agreement with a band by talking to one member of the band to release a 12” version of their album with manufacturing being delayed for several months/years. During this time the other member of the band decides to do a deal with another label in their local area, who agrees to just release this album with different artwork, pressed at a different pressing plant. Company B either announces the release on their own platforms or word leaks (I’ve forgotten the exact origins) that another version is being done, so Company A attempts to settle the situation by offering to sell their pressing to Company B at cost as they are unable (why is not known to me) to abort the production. Company B refuses, saying that they are simply moving forward with their own versions made at their facilities (which while a dick move, is perfectly okay) with Company A’s version being declared bootlegs by the band (who have since completely turned on Company A) and that anyone who distributes Company A’s version being blackballed by the band/Company B. While Company A just put their version out at a monetary loss when it was completed, Company B staged their update purposefully with other more well know bands being released along with the album in question, massive sale, test presses with Company A’s logo crossed out and marketing tactics like “welcome to World War 3 etc.” framing this as nation state’s at war with each other by selling products. To date I have no idea what if any extra sales this did or the long term purpose of this (this album btw was a repress from an already sold out pressing from 2017) and all the surplus of this is likely deadstock for recycling, but we were all entertained by a drama that really in retrospect served no constructive purpose. Personally, I along with just about every musician reading this who cares about the longevity of their work would likely agree that something like this dilutes completely the purpose of their album and that it would be better to not have the re-release done rather than their music being used for this purpose. Company A would have something similar happen to them later (all bet in a much more professional yet expensive manner) and hopefully has been able to implement some type of procedure in place to prevent this from occurring again. Company B didn’t really damage the reputation of the other company all that much and just wasted a bunch of money to further solidify their reputation as being mentally unstable. The world itself kept spinning with this attempt to damage Company A by flooding the market with another version simply not working out at all. The moral of this story is that while pressing your own version of something may seem like a good way to retaliate against somebody by undercutting their sales, it doesn’t work.

To be continued……