Akron/Family Knows How To Sell CDs
The Electronic Frontier Foundation last week issued a report decrying the RIAA’s strategy of suing illegal downloaders, opting to support a “voluntary collective licensing regime.” But even that report misses a larger point, that musicians should find ways to creatively market their wares to an increasingly apathetic audience.
More bands need to take a page from artists like Beck, who allowed his fans to design their own album cover for The Information. But there’s another, easier option: live DVD footage with each purchase. Akron/Family is doing just that.
On September 10, Akron/Family release Love Is Simple, their second full-length release and fourth overall. And serving as bait, initial quantities of the album will come with a bonus DVD of live performance footage — the video of Moment is available for viewing in the embedded YouTube clip above. It’s simple, it’s smart, and the fact that everyone doesn’t do this serves as a reminder that plenty of bands and their managers don’t know shit about their audience.
- Previously on Hidden Track: Akron/Family at Bowery Ballroom
Read on in the comments for more on Akron/Family’s latest release and information on the band’s fall tour, which, like the NFL, kicks off on Thursday…
Slade Sohmer
In 2006 Slade Sohmer founded Hidden Track along with current EiC Scott Bernstein. Slade ran the site until 2008, establishing a scope of coverage and level of professionalism that still exists today. In 2010 Sohmer founded HyperVocal with Lee Brenner and the "purveyors of the vital and viral" have gone on to create a network of highly acclaimed sites that includes Headlines That Suck, Weeping Elvis, Distriction and Spike The Water Cooler.
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“Love Is Simple comes the closest to bridging the gap between the “gangs all here!” chaos, rock action, tribal bongo-banging and sentimental sing-alongs of their live shows and the necessarily more cerebral, or at least worked-over and layered process of recording in the studio where they excel being patient and obsessive techno nerds as well as rampaging apes on demand. There’re some beautiful songs and gorgeous harmony singing as well as some wild and weird jams, all in the service of their chosen Deity:Nothingness, or LOVE, or whatever it is they’re on about.
Their last release, the pointedly challenging Meek Warrior album drew more the high critical praise that the group has garnered right from the outset: The band kicks off an extensive U.S. tour in mid-September in Detroit, Michigan that concludes October 20 in Portland, Oregon. Love Is Simple is being released on Young God September 10.”
AKRON/FAMILY Fall 2007 Tour:
Thu, Sep 6, 2007, Magic Stick, Detroit, Mi
Fri, Sep 7, 2007, Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago, IL
Sat, Sep 8, 2007, Creepy Crawl, St Louis, MO
Mon, Sep 10, 2007, New College of Florida, Sarasota, FL
Tue, Sep 11, 2007, Back Booth, Orlando, FL
Wed, Sep 12, 2007, Downunder Club @ FSU, Tallahassee, FL
Thu, Sep 13, 2007, BottleTree, Birmingham, AL
Fri, Sep 14, 2007, Bijou Theater, Knoxville, TN
Sat, Sep 15, 2007, 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA
Mon, Sep 17, 2007, Pour Haus, Raleigh, NC
Tue, Sep 18, 2007, Rock & Roll Hotel, Washington, DC
Wed, Sep 19, 2007, First Unitarian Church,, Philadelphia, PA
Fri, Sep 21, 2007, Wexner Center for Arts at OSU, Columbus, OH
Sat, Sep 22, 2007, LOLA Festival, London, ON
Sun, Sep 23, 2007, Lee’s Palace, Toronto, ON
Tue, Sep 25, 2007, Vinyl, Guelph, ON
Wed, Sep 26, 2007, Barrymore’s Music Hall, Ottawa, ON
Thu, Sep 27, 2007, Club Metronome, Burlington, VT
Fri, Sep 28, 2007, Harper’s Ferry, Boston, MA
Sun, Sep 30, 2007, Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
Wed 10/10/07, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Ca
Thu 10/11/07, Independent, San Francisco, CA
Fri 10/12/07, The Troubadour, Hollywood, CA
Sat 10/13/07, Fernwood Resort, Big Sur, CA
Sun 10/14/07, Crepe Place, Santa Cruz, CA
Thu 10/18/07, Richards on Richards, Vancouver, BC
Fri 10/19/07, Crocodile Cafe, Seattle, WA
Sat 10/20/07, Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
I have had the album for a few weeks and was hoping for a vinly release but this will definetly get me to buy the cd. However I would still prefer that they jsut release a proper live album.
Yep. Every studio album should come with a DVD Bonus, at the bare minimum, a “Making Of” disc with some footage from the recording sessions…this is how to continue to sell a few CDs…