June 22, 2007

Pumpkins Out of Touch?

by Colin Nagy

Zeitgeist
Last night, a press release went out detailing how the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist, will be released with several different track listings, depending on where the album is bought.

According to the album’s press release:

The standard version includes twelve tracks, but if it’s purchased at either Target or Bestbuy it will include bonus tracks, each with a different song. Lastly, the iTunes version will also come with an additional track entitled "Stellar". Check out the track listings below.

This is the start of what is sure to be a firestorm among fans, bloggers, and the music media. Pitchfork leads off with a strongly worded salvo:

Well, that’s the nail in the coffin, then. Just when we were slightly, slightly starting to care about the Smashing Pumpkins again– what with the release of their long-awaited new album Zeitgeist, and its not-terrible first single, "Tarantula"– here comes something that makes us more than a bit mellon collie.

Billy and company would like you to know that they fully support the
extinction of the American independent record store at the hand of
large, faceless, little-guy-crushing big boxes. They also support
bleeding their fans dry. How? By releasing FOUR different versions of Zeitgeist.

How much of this is actually Billy Corgan’s fault remains to be seen. We’ve seen several recent examples of labels screwing over fans through strong armed retail decisions. A statement from the band should be forthcoming.

Pitchfork 

Article categories: Music

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4 Responses to “Pumpkins Out of Touch?”

  1. hi
    Posted from: 167.167.15.254

    June 22nd, 2007 at 3:42 pm

    It’s not uncommon for labels (indie or major) to split up b-sides in order to attempt to attract consumers to their store for sales purposes. I’ve seen this first hand and think that Billy Corgan had nothing to to do with this decision. I think that pitchfork should shut up and go back to what they do beset: giving pretentious, snarky reviews.

  2. Tech / tunes links - 6.25.07 « The ListeNerd
    Posted from: 208.96.40.12

    June 25th, 2007 at 8:30 am

    [...] Posted by Josh Kimball on June 25th, 2007 *Did you know that Apple is coming out with a music player that is also a PHONE? It is called the iPhone. *The MusicBrainz database (buzzwords: open source and community generated!) is being integrated into the BBC music site; it’ll loop in track listings and discographies. More here. *Music playing widgets! They sound boring! And maybe they are. ReverbNation is a widget for the people. The people with bands. Who want other people to hear their music. [via] On a side note, who knew so many entrepreneurs would actually be in business MAKING WIDGETS? The next new economy hotspot: thing-a-majigs. *Remember how the Smashing Pumpkins were OK again for about 12 seconds back when their web site was all user generated and shit? Well, they’re on the outs again after releasing four different versions of their latest album. However, I’m not really sure how big a deal this is. Are there really a lot of Pumpkins completists out there? [via PSFK] [...]

  3. Sam I Am
    Posted from: 66.75.24.212

    June 25th, 2007 at 2:11 pm

    Everyone is talking about the screwing over of fans yet for years these same fans have been screwing over artists by downloading and trading music for free. End of story.

  4. The Researcher
    Posted from: 85.228.51.6

    June 30th, 2007 at 11:38 am

    I don’t get the screwing part really. The thing is that (as Rolling Stone is writing about) the record industry is facing their biggest paradigm shift since… never…

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