Hi, Shane! Thanks for your response and I also read your letter to Universal in the other thread! It's a GREAT letter. They may not answer everything, but anything you get from them will be an interesting read, I think!! I look forward to that when you get it!
I would think they'd be pleased to see such an interest being paid to one of their albums--even if it's one that they aren't doing much to promote!
You know, Shane, I've been thinking about your situation there, FireBall's early response that the album should NOT have been released there yet AND the situation coming up the US, with the upcoming tour starting in less than 2 weeks and NO physical album to sell until late August!
And I'm wondering if we, in a very odd way, don't have something in common. Let me run this by you to see if any of it makes sense: It sounds as though somehow, somewhere, something got messed up in coordinating promotions and the releases of the album.
If, in fact, Universal was supposed to wait until Meat WAS able to get there to promote the CD BEFORE they released it in NZ, maybe they either gave up waiting, knowing it had already been released in much of Europe and the UK, or they got tired of waiting for the dates to firm up and just went ahead and put it out, hoping for better things to come when Meat does actually get there. Does that make sense?
Here in the States, from what we've heard and read, it's a matter of record company/label problems and their inability to see past the dollar signs. They waited to see how the album did elsewhere in the world before they seemed willing to pick it up (talk about lack of foresight!). But then, this is the US where money almost ALWAYS seems to be the bottom line these days, no matter WHAT we are talking about!
And so, the upcoming US tour really should have been set later in the year, AFTER CHSIB has been released here. Obviously, no one could predict these delays or problems, and huge tours like this one have to be carefully planned well in advance. But, as you can see, it's a problem, similar and yet opposite to what you're having there. YOU have the product and no promotion yet. We will have the promotion through the first part of the tour and NO product for a while!!
How utterly frustrating this has got to be for Meat!!!! Doesn't it sound like this was all some kind of coordination problem, Shane? And none of it was probably avoidable, when record companies are going to do things, in the end, the way they want to do things!
It sort of makes you want to pull your hair out. There's nothing else you can do. It's out of the artist's hands at this point in the process! URGHHHH!!!
I'm sure that things will even out as time goes on and the WORLD tour begins and the album is released properly everywhere. We're just at that interim stage where one thing or another is missing.
So, yes, I guess chart position is important. But it seems to be more important to the record companies. The record companies in NZ are looking at chart position to decide about releasing a single. The record companies in the US were looking at chart position to decide if they even wanted to pick up the album!
What do you think, Shane? Does this sound plausible to you for both our situations??
Love to hear what you think about it.
Thanks again! Keep up the good work there! I know it's hard and frustrating--but you ARE doing a great job of it, along with all the other folks at the forum from NZ!!!
Love,
MB
xxx