Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by DannyGraceland on March 10, 2021 at 7:54am

I agree! This forum is fantastic, and a second for non-musicians, or making this forum more general would be fantastic!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Cd swatch on March 10, 2021 at 8:06am

Yes, thank you, I saw those before, I think those are great but then I think most of us are also cautious about posting them to this forum.  The best part of these forums is the speed at which members post, which give us a little better opportunity to purchase.  I am sure most of us also collect non-musicians autographs.  Thank you so much though for posting regularly, as I am at work most of the time, and unable to browse through the usual websites regularly.  

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Chris Furness on March 10, 2021 at 3:35pm

Personally I am very happy to see the virtual unknowns on here. I then research them and make a call, but like you with Billie, can kick myself later by passing on something I then regret later. I have discovered so much really good music in this way, which is fantastic.

Regarding the non-music items, I agree that it would be a great idea, but for me is best on a separate forum.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Morrison123 on March 10, 2021 at 2:00pm

That would be great if someone created a non music related direct sales auto thread. Please post a link here if you do.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by M. on March 10, 2021 at 3:34pm

I pitched the idea to Steve a while back, but I don't think there was much interest, and nothing really came of it. Like you say, most non-musician offerings tend to be books. I've posted a few books in more appropriate sections, but they don't tend to get the amount of traffic as this one, and they're also much harder to follow.

My impression has been that the administrators are relatively relaxed when it comes to what can be posted in this forum. I know many non-musicians (Obama, McConaughey, Bush, Carrey, etc.) have been posted in this section and no one seemed to mind except for me.

If they decide to keep the "Musician-Direct" section more general, I personally think the name should be changed to something else so it's more obvious that any genre can be shared here.

Frankly, the bigger problem I see with this section isn't so much that there are some non-musicians posted here, but that there are frequently duplicate threads created discussing the same releases (ex. someone posts when an item is first listed, someone else makes a new thread when the same item is restocked, then someone else makes yet another thread when the item they received isn't what they expected). However, that's largely unrelated to the topic in this thread, and more just me venting.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by M. on March 10, 2021 at 4:16pm

Eh, I get what you're saying, but I still consider most of those to be "musician-direct," at least as "direct" as we can hope for. The artists that are able to handle their own merch aren't likely to have a large enough audience to be seen on here much. The way I see it:

Musician-Direct includes:

Tier 1 - Artist handles their own merch (ex. Nick Pitera, maybe Pete Yorn's pyartifact?)

Tier 2 - Artist's Label manages Official Store (ex. Universal Music Group, Warner Music, Bravado)

Tier 3 - Merchandising Company contracted by Label to manage "Official" Store (ex. MusicToday, Wallflower, Second City Prints, maybe Merchbar?)

Tier 4a - Major Retailers that are getting label/publisher-direct (ex. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Walmart, Target, etc.)

Tier 4b* - Retailers that are most likely publisher-direct (ex. Newbury Comics, Townsend)

Tier 4c* - Smaller retailers that might be a mix of sources (ex. indie bookstores, Looney Tunes, Rolling Stone)

* Tiers 4b and 4c seem to be blurring the line as far as what could be considered "musician-direct," but they're still accepted here I guess?

Edit: I just want to add - this whole "what constitute 'direct'" is one of the issues that could potentially arise with non-musician items. For example with entertainers that don't usually have official stores, do you include things like private signings (ex. Wizard World, OC Celebrities, Zobie), or larger retailers that have exclusive contracts (ex. Celebrity Authentics). Where do you draw the line? I personally would exclude companies like I just listed because you have to draw the line somewhere.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rich on March 11, 2021 at 6:48am

I think if we were to tighten it up to "musician direct" in the strictest sense, this wouldn't be a particularly interesting or active forum. The basic idea behind direct is - generally speaking - non-dealer, non-collector items that were sourced directly from the artist's label/management. In essence, these are to some extent "mass-produced." 

Side note, I do delete multiple threads on the same topic when it seems to be a product of the second poster not realizing a sufficient thread already exists.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bob Peel on March 11, 2021 at 5:23am

Be nice if there was one for signed books etc like a Hollywood signed option than folk requesting if a autograph is genuine 

• ▶ Reply