« Ratdog on tour - instant live CDs | Main | Herb Greene: Close Encounters with The Dead »
December 6, 2005
From Geoff Gould at GD Forum Store
All of the following is from Geoff Gould, longtime operator of the GD Forum Store on AOL:
By now, most of you know about the back and forth situation regarding the availability of digital shows at the Internet Archive. Many deadheads protested, and it seems like a compromise has been reached. Soundboards will only be streamed, but audience recordings will be downloadable again. Here's the update from the archive.Phil issued a statement, essentially saying he didn't know about how this was
going down.There's a ton of links in the Google News area too.
I'd say there was a lot of different realities at play here. At the extreme poles were people inside the GD organization taking a "business is business" approach to the Dead's intellectual property, and some deadheads who believe they (the fans) were entitled to endless free downloads of said intellectual property. I think the current agreement seems pretty reasonable, but this moment has been a watershed, exposing the realities of the music business in the age of digital music. Things will never be the same. Or maybe, it will just be the "same as it ever was."
This brings me to share with you the current state of the GDForum Store. The Grateful Dead have been very good to me over the years. When my company was making Phil and Bobby's axes (and a couple for Jerry he didn't play) they helped keep us afloat. Over the years since the GD Forum first appeared on AOL and then on the web, we have worked together to bring the community many unique chat events and interviews. The GDF Store was actually the first functioning online commerce store selling GD Merchandise back in the Fall of 1995, and the GDM folk provided us with much great gear over the years. It's been an honor serving the community, but times have changed.
Enter the "business is business" crowd.
Over the last couple of years, the GDM as well as the JG Estate stores have adopted a marketing plan of offering 'exclusive bonus discs' that has basically cut our sales anywhere from 60% to 90%. It was probably intended to get more market share away from sites like Amazon, and not aimed at me (I hope!) but the result is undeniable nonetheless. Like I said, the GD has been very good to me, and after reading Phil's comments, I have to hope I was not targeted by these practices, but merely affected by the collateral damage.
It's hard to say for sure, but this sure feels like the last holiday season for us, so we'll be trying to clear the shelves as much as possible, and will send out a note soon about some specials. In the meantime, we look forward to helping you out in 2005, and will keep the latest, most popular gift items in stock this month.
Here are a few basic links:
The Holiday Shopping Update page
Thanks again for all your support over the years, and drop me a line to say hi
when you can.Peace,
Geoff Gould
GDForum webmasterAOL keyword: aol://4344:635.deadtop.4523331.494870589
Customer service: 800-513-0000
Posted by gans at December 6, 2005 10:15 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://mediajunkie.com/jack/pinger.cgi/7147