I just got an email from Ticketmaster with a special code because every time you buy a tix to a Regina Spektor concert, you get a free copy of her new album. And so now it is official: cheating is exothermic. It is the way business is conducted.
My Chemical Romance have done it, Madonna has done, now Regina is doing it.
At some point, if you are a band of a certain size, you release albums to tour behind and give away the away to people who buy the much more expensive seats and fic the charts in your favor. If regina is doing it, where is the moral repugnancy?
But it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Why would the woman who wrote "Ink Stains" sully who reputaion with questionable business practises? To appear to have sold an extra 100K units and enter the charts and #4 instead of #14? The up doesn't feel up enough, it is a lingering, troubling, question mark of an up. As though she isn't good enough to sell albums on her own steam and therefore pushes the envelope.
It really is bad news. It just makes it harder for a new band to crack the charts because they can't do it.