Foo Fighters Too Big For Their Britches? And Other Fan Casualties.

by Jeff Boule in Editorials, New DVD Releases, News, Opinion Posts

Before you get mislead, no fans or audience members were harmed in the making of this blog. But it ain’t pretty.

If you are a fan of the Foo Fighters you know about their recent DVD release Live At Wembley Stadium. Die hard fans knew about their pre-order offer where they included not only the DVD but also a T-shirt, some laminates (the plastic cards crew members and band members often wear around their necks to denote they are current tour members with varying degrees of access to areas within the venue) photos and other promotional items. The long and the short of it is, they over sold the promotional items and many were denied what they chose to order directly from Dave Grohl and/or The Foo Fighters and/or representatives thereof either/or entity.

I was made aware of the following situation, which ALL OF YOU MUST READ TO PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING TO YOU, from someone who contacted me through a blog site and I found the situation so appalling, I must bring it to as many people’s attention as this affects so many on so many levels, it’s astounding!!

How Does It Affect The Consumer?
A) Disenfranchised – the fan who contacted me explained that they had bought many promotional, bonus-laden extra merchandise, above and beyond the average fan/collector. Now they feel betrayed by the unfeeling fan club distribution network and have vowed NEVER to buy anything by Foo Fighters again. Albums will either be downloaded (only for free) or bought used to make sure Dave Grohl and the rest of his unfeeling cohorts don’t see a dime of profit.
B) Reduces consumer output (buying used as opposed to new/not buying promotional items again, no concert tickets, T-shirts, other promo items). On the small scale, this only benefits the consumer as they save their money to spend on artists who appreciate their loyal fan base. If it were possible to magnify this to a larger scale (a few hundred consumers boycotting product) this might have an effect on Foo Fighters bottom line, but it would only be marginal as there will always be blind, faithful followers who will put up with the abuse regardless of the audacity of the offense.

How Does It Affect The Independent Record Stores?
A) In the immediate, small independent small record stores lose sales because the artist neglects their fan base, because steady customers were assuaged from purchasing at local stores due to misleading promises from artists/record companies/others.
B) Reduction of incoming revenue stream, ordered via customer preferences now reshaped by animosity conjured by numbers oriented accountants managing artists motives.

How Does It Affect The Artist?
A) It does not, as was mentioned previously, they have so many blind faithful sycophantic fans that the artist will not miss your lousy dollars. Again, this is only effective if carried out in larger numbers. Even with the communication possibilities the web and other grass-roots campaigns offer, this is still very unlikely.
B) Bait And Switch? This could easily be construed as bait and switch except that the Foo Fighters distribution only charged the person who contacted me the cost of the DVD alone (the promotional pack cost more which this person was prepared to pay, mind you). But the person also let me know that had they notified her that she was not getting the promotional package, she would have preferred to spend her money at a local independent retailer instead of wasting it on shipping for something she could get anywhere locally (every penny counts in this economy).

Now OFTEN is the case where you place an order with business X, and you receive fifty percent of your order from location A, and the remainder from location B. This is common, but not the case here. What was offered, and what was delivered were NOT of equal value/promise/expectation. But now we have another example of fan-abuse.

A different reader contacted me about a difficulty he had with Tony Levin’s Papa Bear site. It seems that Papa Bear records handed over its distribution to a company called MagnoCD. They are a mail order company and when this fan emailed in his order, he gave them his credit card information right on down to the three-digit code on the back. They refused to process his order. He called and emailed and they more or less told him that they did not appreciate his follow-up (they did not get some of his references in the emails) and decided to ban him from MagnoCD for life!!! Because someone (Maggie he said her name was) couldn’t figure out how to process his credit card (yes those debit/credit cards are SO confusing) so she blamed him for her stupidity and he was unable to spend around $50 on the site for a book and a CD. This reader got his book about King Crimson at one of their recent (and final) shows along with the Tony Levin Stick Man CD. I have them too. I love the book, the CD I played once and haven’t played again as I found it boring. So this person isn’t missing much if he still doesn’t have it.

But this is a prime example of artists not giving a rat’s back-end about their fan base, the people who ultimately pay their salary (more so in this day and age of independent distribution). I know I lost a tremendous amount of tremendous respect for Tony Levin.

We can find the opposite of this however, just as recently as yesterday, I finally received my expanded copy of David Byrne Brian Eno’s Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. It was due to be received before Thanksgiving, it came before Christmas. But in the interim, I received an email from David Byrne explaining that he was not happy with the painting job they had done on the little house that is affixed to the top of the tin which contains the CD, extra bonus tracks, a video on the making of the album, a small bible-esque book with lyrics, musician listings, commentary, etc. as well as a die which contains lyrics printed on the sides of the die. When you remove the top of the tin, a chip plays the sounds of either someone hammering or walking (hard to decipher) every time you pick up the lid, the sounds start, when you put it down, it stops. This cost close to $80 and considering that Brian Eno appears in the video and he NEVER does press, it is well worth it from a collector’s standpoint.

Byrne said he rejected the first batch of tins, the paint was not up to standard. He wanted to put quality into the fans hands at that price. I have astronomical amounts of respect for David Byrne.

Then there is the matter of where I will be New Years Eve. This is pertinent as it exemplifies more artist caring, we should make it even, two against, two for. On New Years Eve, I will be covering the Todd Rundgren New Year’s Eve show at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia. The tickets were exclusive to those who purchased Todd Rundgren bobble heads from the Website. The tickets were $125 a head and only 250 were offered. It has sold out (I am surprised). But the evening is not limited to a concert. We all receive complimentary champagne flutes and a complimentary fill of champagne at midnight. We had to order our merchandise in advance (with the tickets) so we will be given a package of T-shirts, hoodies, whatever we ordered (I forgot already, it was so long ago) upon our arrival. There will be a dinner before hand, with Stewky from Todd’s first band The Nazz (we are not attending this) then there will be wedding, Kasim Sulton will be singing at the wedding, then we get to see a New Year’s concert with Todd (his last of the tour) and hopefully party with Todd (I am gunning to interview him for the site, keep your fingers crossed). When my best thing to ever happen to me emailed the organizers and said: “Look, I am short, is there any way I can get some good unimpaired seating?” We received a reply that it will be taken care of even thought the Painted Bride Arts Center has tiered seating!

They really want to take care of us.

Dave, Tony, take a good, hard look at David Byrne, Brian Eno, Todd Rundgren. They can teach you something about how to care for the fans that put the money in your pockets. I recommend that if an artist gives you grief through their website, head to your local independent record store (like PREX) and get your needs fulfilled by people who care about your satisfaction.

Tony Levin and Dave Grohl do not.

As I just mentioned, I will be attending the New Years Eve Rundgren festivities, I hope to have at least a report on the event, and if the fates smile on me, an interview with the man himself. If this happens, it truly will be a happy holiday!!!