It surprised me to hear that tune by The Saturdays from the speakers at Biltmore Fashion Park because the group has never released anything in the United States; I picked up all their discs, used, on Amazon.
I don’t get why music companies block consumers from being able to buy tracks, depending on their country of origin. While I understand it takes a concerted effort to “launch” an artist, especially in the United States, I would think they’d embrace sales — especially digital ones, which require absolutely no work or physical product from the label — no matter where the buyer lived.
I once tried to buy a Kylie Minogue disc on HMV.com because the label released the album in Europe months before it was planned in the U.S., but got denied. And the Vevo channel for The Saturdays is similarly annoying: Some tracks are fine to watch but others — which Vevo itself loaded to the channel — bring up an error message like the one above. Why promote materials you’re about to deny access to? It just makes me leave your channel and find another one.
It’s another demonstration of how music companies don’t quite get the way people consume music today. I want to be able to get the new album from I Blame Coco (Sting’s daughter!) without waiting a year for the label to execute some dramatic P.R. blitz. Go to her MySpace page and it reminds you the album’s already out; click on the iTunes link and you’ll get the message above. Annoying as hell.
At any rate, back to The Saturdays. I love “If This Is Love,” probably because it relies heavily on a hook from “Situation” by Yaz for its synth line. (For my friend Rich’s birthday disc, I placed the songs back to back, for emphasis. I make killer compilation discs, if I do say so myself.) I chose this as the song I wish I heard on the radio because being able to do so would signify that the music/copyright version of the Berlin Wall had finally crumbled and I’d have access to good pop music no matter its country of origin.
Click either here or on the photo of the girls above to watch the video for “If This Is Love” on the group’s website. SO THERE, VEVO.
| WHAT SAM WORE: 2-13-11 | ||||
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| The shirt: University of Montana T-shirt, a gift from Mr. Brooks. | ||||
| The shorts: Knit shorts by Champion, from Sports Authority. | ||||
| The shoes: Running shoes by Nike, from the factory outlet store at Anthem. | ||||
SAMMITT 