Brit Daniel performs at a surprise tour-kickoff show at Hotel Vegas in Austin. Photo by Bryan Parker.
Spoon’s new plan for encouraging vinyl purchases ahead of their new album has me almost weepy over humanity’s ability to still be uplifting and beautiful. We all lament the failings of these systems we exist within, but it’s rare that someone actually takes time to figure out a different plan. Spoon’s new program requires a little bit of risk for all parties involved, and I know I’m going to be doing my part to support their Vinyl Gratification program. Brit Daniel’s post deserves to be read in its entirety; here’s what the band posted to Facebook yesterday along with an explanation of how the program works.
A few weeks ago as we were figuring out how to roll out the new Spoon album I kept coming back to this: why do we incentivize people to buy our music from big outlets but we don’t extend the same courtesy to actual record stores? Case in point: why do we encourage listeners to buy early by offering “instant gratification” tracks for pre-orders of the digital album, yet there’s no special motivation for buying music from Waterloo or Reckless Records? And there’s no incentive to buy the format that so many of those listeners prefer—an actual physical item they can hold and read and play on a turntable.
So I came up with an idea, and today I’m pretty ecstatic to be able introduce the Vinyl Gratification program. It’s the first program of its kind; it encourages pre-ordering a vinyl copy of our new album They Want My Soul at independent record stores all over the US (and soon, internationally) by providing its own sort of instant gratification: a limited edition 10″ vinyl featuring three pre-release songs from the album that you can take home with you and put on your record player immediately. The great people at Record Store Day have generously offered to spread the word about the program and we’re launching with 150 stores on board, well beyond our wildest dreams.
The way it works is
1) Starting July 15, find a participating record store near you by going to www.vinylgratification.com.
2) Pre-order your copy of the album and hold on to your receipt as proof of purchase.
3) Take home your 10″ and listen on great-sounding 45RPM vinyl to three songs from the album before the album is released.
4) On or after August 5 when They Want My Soul comes out, bring your receipt back to the store where you pre-ordered, get your 180g white vinyl copy of the LP, take it home or to a friend’s house, and listen to your new album.
I hope you’ll join us in supporting the independent record shops that have supported us for so long.
Britt Daniel
Austin, TX
