ACS___

This community prides itself on supporting artists, please don't post links to copyrighted material.

I had to plunge the depths of the internet a few months ago for the demo. The "acoustic" (piano version) was released on The Militia Group release of Chroma but was replaced with the full band version which is on iTunes once Epic re-released the album the following year.

LINKS REMOVED

btw - are we allowed to post links like these? I'm looking for a Rules thread but cannot find one so I'm just gunna go ahead and post until someone says otherwise.

Thomas said nothing "unprofessional." Asking for a refund on an item that's not exactly official when you thought it was isn't unprofessional, nor is talking about it. 

ALSO there should probably be a mention in the liner notes about all the wonderful cat gifs the internet has to offer.

Thomas said nothing "unprofessional." Asking for a refund on an item that's not exactly official when you thought it was isn't unprofessional, nor is talking about it. 

I am pretty sure he is talking about copeland who after aaron expressed having his own plans (which i messaged him multiple times on social media to run the reissue idea by him). I had already gotten the go ahead from the label at that point but regardless I backed off with no questions asked. I never got contacted by any lawyers at any point with any release. It takes a ton of work time and work to get a release full cleared and worked out so there are many releases in which i get label clearance and then approach the band about their involvement.
 
If a band who i contact expresses having their own re-issue in the works or do not want the album re-issued for whatever reason then I inform the label that I will be moving forward, and that is it. Many releases which still have yet to see a vinyl release or a reissue, which could have happened by ETR have not for that reason. I always try to do right by the artist, as i did by offering cartel copies at cost for this one which they were planning to do until the manager forgot to respond to me with their decision in which time, contracts with label were already signed and things in motion.
 
In my opinion, all of this was due to poor communication between band and management & the band responded in Feb 2013 saying "awesome and interested, speak to our manager..he is the one who handles these matters" and then sent me his contact which was the last contact i had direct with the band. But someone other than their manager responded to that message, unless their manager was responding in the 3rd person. I was also told by a few people that some interview where people outright stated "I heard ETR got the rights to chroma for a vinyl re-issue, how do you feel about that". I hinted on the VC board about getting the rights over a year ago so maybe it was from that but regards...it was something along those lines where I was specifically mentioned to Will.  Will responded saying "I know nothing about that or who etr is"      I never saw these interview until yesterday but if he that was asked specifically about this when why wouldn't he have asked the manager about it and/or contact me direct at that point.  I also contacted will on facebook direct with shows as being read, which i also mentioned yesterday but that is beside the point.  The fact that they are outright claiming that we had no prior knowledge of this, is my main issue because i made many efforts to bring it to their attention and work out a deal with them which would benefit everyone and be fair to them. I understand that it sucks not owning the rights to your music which is why i offered them copies at cost, but the reality is that the album is controlled by a major label and the band/manager outright told me that they would love to see a re-issue but cannot even get copies of chroma at wholesale from the label & they have no idea about how to obtain the rights. 

That was a totally different situation. Ross was new to everyone at the time, was completely unproven as a record label owner and had no track record. He fucked up, and I think he'll willingly admit that. He's since put out dozens of records with all sorts of bands, active and broken up, big and small, and it's clear he's gotten better at what he does, because people continue to work with him and promote the product he creates.
 
Would I reissue something on vinyl without telling the band? No. But clearly, that's not what Ross did here. And the only reason people care is because it's 1)an active band and 2)someone who's easily reachable—aka not Music On Vinyl, 4 Men With Beards, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, etc. All of those companies buy the rights to releases all the time and reissue them with all sorts of bells and whistles, likely without the artist's involvement. Do you think those limited colored pressings Newbury Comics are doing are signed off on by the artist 100% of the time? Doubtful.
 
It's an artist's job to create art however they deem appropriate. It's a record company's job to sell that art however they deem appropriate. As someone who has nearly 15 years in "the industry," let me tell you that band members are typically the most out-of-the-loop people when it comes to their own careers, which is why they react emotionally and publicly to things like this instead of trying to politely and professionally get to the bottom of it behind the scenes. Such is the creative mind, I suppose.
 
I like Cartel. I like this record. I like Ross. I bought a copy, which puts money in Ross' pockets, who already put money into Cartel's pockets, because the licensing fee he paid to Epic most likely included royalties. There is no loser in this situation, except people who want to pretend they understand how the music industry works but have literally less than 1% of a clue.

I bought this. I can understand the band wanting to do it their way, but I mean from the looks of it Ross did a good job with this (I'm guessing it will sound good), offered them a variant, and even was willing to send them free copies after they basically tried to torpedo his pressing.
 
I appreciate the band for writing an awesome album. It sucks things couldn't be worked out on their end. They can always press their version if it works out for them to. I don't mind if they say they don't endorse and won't vouch for this pressing. That's well within their rights. On the other hand I also appreciate ETR for pressing this and finally being able to have a copy. I'd say the band should have probably privately reached out to Ross to see what was up before they started posting a bunch of stuff on twitter. Whoever posted on twitter should have talked to someone in their camp so they could actually have the facts before they went on a rant that had some untrue information included.

Thomas said nothing "unprofessional." Asking for a refund on an item that's not exactly official when you thought it was isn't unprofessional, nor is talking about it.