Thoughts on the Songs for Sorrow EP?

[A. Clay]

What do you mean, Alice?

Read this:

 

In fact, Neil Gaiman said it better than I ever could:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html

(Scroll down to the bolded paragraph, which is the reader's question, then read his response and replace "George R. R. Martin" with "Mika" and replace "books" with "albums".)

 

from post #239, this thread posted by riverstwilight

I think it offers a lot of perspective.

 

Excerpts:

"People are not machines. Writers and artists aren't machines."

 

"You don't choose what will work. You simply do the best you can each time. And you try to do what you can to increase the likelihood that good art will be created."

 

" '_____' is not working for you."

Edited May 17, 2009 by A. Clay

[I <3 MIKA!!!]

Read this:

In fact, Neil Gaiman said it better than I ever could:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/0...nt-issues.html

(Scroll down to the bolded paragraph, which is the reader's question, then read his response and replace "George R. R. Martin" with "Mika" and replace "books" with "albums".)

from post #___, this thread

 

the article isnt there for me it says invalid html...

[Gatagordinha]

Maybe this is me being a bit thick..but can I ask, why did people pre-order the download version of the EP anyway? What was the point of that?

 

 

Though I agree, it's odd, and annoying from a principle point of view, that the price got changed.

 

When something is pre-ordered, it is usually shipped early enough to arrive at the person's house on the day the item is officially released to the public (sometimes, it arrives a few days early, as happened with something else I recently pre-ordered.)

 

Since the EP isn't going to be available in more than a few physical locations, it's a good idea to pre-order it to make sure that it arrives on the day of release. If we waited until the day of release to order, we'd still have to wait however long it would take to travel through the post.

 

I don't know about you, but I sure don't want to wait until the middle of June or early July to get my physical copy of the EP.

 

If your question is about why people would pre-order the download version, I'd have to say that it's just to show support for the artist and interest in the artist's work. Companies offer pre-sales as one one of gauging how much traffic the download server could potentially have so that they can make sure their equipment can handle the traffic.

 

As for why anybody would order the physical copy, because some of us appreciate art. No matter how good the technology gets, physical copies of art will always be more true to the original colors than monitors which all vary in technology and quality. I worked as a graphic designer in print media for over a year and never once sent out the final product without printing a paper proof in order to make sure that what I designed would look the way I had intended on paper. There were always things that needed to be fixed.

 

Also, downloaded music uses different encoding than physical CDs. There is definitely a difference in the sound quality. Some of us have deeply sensitive hearing and greatly prefer the higher quality sound of a physical CD to the inferior coding of a music download, which is why I haven't spent a whole lot of time listening to the songs on Mikasounds. I'm waiting for the EP so that I can hear the songs clearly.

 

(Granted, not many people will ever test off the charts when they have their hearing checked, but some of us do.)

 

But my question wasn't why did people pre-order the physical CD . I understand the reason for that. Nor was I questioning why anyone would download the EP; I did so myself five minutes after it became available.

 

I was just wondering what the advantage was to people to have pre-ordered the download version, as I couldn't understand why that was necessary.

 

Somebody replied that it was just for convenience as she had her credit cards out at time of ordering the physical CD/buying tickets. That kind of answered my question .

[A. Clay]

the article isnt there for me it says invalid html...

TRY THIS:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html

(Scroll down to the bolded paragraph' date=' which is the reader's question, then read his response and replace "George R. R. Martin" with [b']"Mika"[/b] and replace "books" with "albums".)

Edited May 17, 2009 by A. Clay

[I <3 MIKA!!!]

TRY THIS:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html

 

ooo ok now i see ur point alice...but i do think its only natural for a fan to critisize an artists work whether it is good criticisms or bad and of course any singers second third or whatever album they are on will be different then the previous one and it depends on the fans to determine if they like it more or less...

[A. Clay]

ooo ok now i see ur point alice...but i do think its only natural for a fan to critisize an artists work whether it is good criticisms or bad and of course any singers second third or whatever album they are on will be different than the previous one and it depends on the fans to determine if they like it more or less...

~DE GUSTIBUS NON EST DISPUTANDUM~

I could not more agree with you!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_gustibus_non_est_disputandum

[JackViolet]

Love "Blue Eyes." Not a fan of "Lady Jane" at all, with "Lonely Alcoholic" just a little more preferable. Also, the lyrics on these songs are amazingly terrible. Nay, impressively terrible.

 

That said, I am nevertheless not at all disappointed. "Blue Eyes" and "Toy Boy" alone are enough to make me happy, and though I say I'm not a fan of the other two songs, they are still interesting to hear, and I can enjoy both in certain moods (I just don't want to listen to them over and over). Anyway, all in all, I'm glad this was released. It's fun to hear what else Mika's been playing around with!

 

--Jack

[JackViolet]

That is an example of a lame lyric. "Lonely is so lonely alone" is about as awkward as they come and no matter how many hundreds of times I hear this line I still cringe.

 

When I first heard the song, I thought the lyric was "lonely is so lonely, you know?" and I loved that. A simple, plaintive statement, evoking childish loss in its primitiveness, and effective precisely because of that. Ie, at that level of loneliness, words fail the singer, and all he can come up with to describe the feeling is "lonely is just so... lonely, you know?"

 

I have never gotten over the disappointment of finding out what the lyric actually was.

 

--Jack

[JackViolet]

Ha, I know what a raspberry is. :-) I think we have one in the smilies?

 

--Jack

[iadoremika]

Ha, I know what a raspberry is. :-) I think we have one in the smilies?

 

--Jack

Kinda like ?

[Christine]

Love "Blue Eyes." Not a fan of "Lady Jane" at all, with "Lonely Alcoholic" just a little more preferable. Also, the lyrics on these songs are amazingly terrible. Nay, impressively terrible.

 

Yes there is something quite impressive there. The lyrics of Big Girl are just weak. Lady Jane the footless fish is a whole 'notha level.

[Blue Sky]

See, I prefer the fable quality of Lady Jane to the words of Blue Eyes which make no sense to me, but I do like the rhythm and music of Blue Eyes. Lady Jane and Lonely Alcoholic are quite Nilsson-ish as I have said before.

 

And funny thing for me is I LOVED the words "Lonely is so lonely alone". I felt it conveyed something deeper than just lonely is so lonely.... There is no accounting for taste.

 

Just like people tell me prawns are delicious, I cannot fathom for one minute why anyone would like the taste, nor want to rip them apart with all those tentacles and things and then eat their insides. Sorry, I cannot eat them. I prefer not to even look at them. And yes I live in Japan where everyone but me eats them AND looks at them licking their lips.

 

So some things appeal to us but not others. It's all subjective in the end.

Edited May 18, 2009 by Blue Sky

[sariflor]

Just like people tell me prawns are delicious, I cannot fathom for one minute why anyone would like the taste, nor want to rip them apart with all those tentacles and things and then eat their insides. Sorry, I cannot eat them. I prefer not to even look at them. And yes I live in Japan where everyone but me eats them AND looks at them licking their lips.

 

So some things appeal to us but not others. It's all subjective in the end.

 

Prawns? Tentacles? Is someone getting her prawns confused with her squids?

[RAK1]

See, I prefer the fable quality of Lady Jane to the words of Blue Eyes which make no sense to me, but I do like the rhythm and music of Blue Eyes. Lady Jane and Lonely Alcoholic are quite Nilsson-ish as I have said before.

 

And funny thing for me is I LOVED the words "Lonely is so lonely alone". I felt it conveyed something deeper than just lonely is so lonely.... There is no accounting for taste.

 

Just like people tell me prawns are delicious, I cannot fathom for one minute why anyone would like the taste, nor want to rip them apart with all those tentacles and things and then eat their insides. Sorry, I cannot eat them. I prefer not to even look at them. And yes I live in Japan where everyone but me eats them AND looks at them licking their lips.

 

So some things appeal to us but not others. It's all subjective in the end.

 

 

I agree with all of that, especially the bit about prawns!

[Gatagordinha]

I tried to address that by writing:

 

If your question is about why people would pre-order the download version, I'd have to say that it's just to show support for the artist and interest in the artist's work. Companies offer pre-sales as one way of gauging how much traffic the download server could potentially have so that they can make sure their equipment can handle the traffic.

 

Now I'm clarifying:

 

That is to say that the benefit of pre-ordering a digital copy of something is so that the people in charge of the download server will be prepared to deal with the server traffic, which mean less likelihood of the download server crashing and less down time if the server does happen to crash. Better response times from the techs means less downtime for the customers.

 

The benefit TO YOU of pre-ordering a digital copy of something is that you will probably be able to download it when you want to instead of having to wait for the server to come back up when it crashed because there wasn't a tech on call to keep things running smoothly in the first place and fix it immediately when things stopped running altogether.

 

Without pre-sales, it's harder to gauge the likely amount of traffic and response times are more likely to be slow for a whole bunch of reasons.

 

Pre-ordering something is almost never necessary. It's simply helpful to the company in charge of making sure that you get what you ordered in a timely fashion. It's also convenient FOR YOU because it means you don't have to wait through a server crash on the day something was released because everybody else wanted to buy it the second it went online. When you can pre-order something, traffic is more likely to trickle in at the convenience of the customers rather than slamming into the server at a specific time and causing a major crash that takes hours to fix.

 

SIMPLE ANSWER:

Pre-orders are one way of controlling network traffic so that people can download the product when they want it instead of having to wait through hours of server maintenance because everybody tried to pay for it and download it the minute that it was released.

 

Ok, I see the logic in that, I suppose. I have never ever seen a pre-sale download before though. I'm not saying they don't happen, just that I have never seen it. And I thought it was just odd.

 

But let's not get bogged down in this, it's really not a major issue although those people who have ended up being charged 51p too much might disagree with that.

[Blue Sky]

Prawns? Tentacles? Is someone getting her prawns confused with her squids?

They are still tentacles in my mind, although they officially may be antennae and legs and whatever else in yours. And as I say, I hate looking at them so I can never revisit this page now

 

It is all a matter of subjective taste. Some may say Lady Jane is as unappealing to them as prawns are to me, but I like that fishy song:naughty:

 

PS I was just trying to keep our theme aquatic...

[sariflor]

They are still tentacles in my mind, although they officially may be antennae and legs and whatever else in yours. And as I say, I hate looking at them so I can never revisit this page now

 

It is all a matter of subjective taste. Some may say Lady Jane is as unappealing to them as prawns are to me, but I like that fishy song:naughty:

 

PS I was just trying to keep our theme aquatic...

 

 

Oh BS. I can't believe this. After seeing your picture, all I can imagine is that Lady Jane is not a fish, but a prawn

He should really change the lyrics to "Lady Jane, the river prawn..." Doesn't the song sound better already? I think so .

Ok but now seriously-I know what you mean. I love prawns but I feel the same as you against mussels.

[Gatagordinha]

They are still tentacles in my mind, although they officially may be antennae and legs and whatever else in yours. And as I say, I hate looking at them so I can never revisit this page now

 

It is all a matter of subjective taste. Some may say Lady Jane is as unappealing to them as prawns are to me, but I like that fishy song:naughty:

 

PS I was just trying to keep our theme aquatic...

 

 

Now you see...I am at that picture. Prawns are my favourite food! Though the pink flower is a bit unappetizing .

 

YUM!! I am a Pisces and love all things fishy and aquatic, even bizarre Mika lyrics.

[dcdeb]

although those people who have ended up being charged 51p too much might disagree with that.

 

Please see here

 

http://www.mikafanclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18545

[babspanky]

Pre-orders are one way of controlling network traffic so that people can download the product when they want it instead of having to wait through hours of server maintenance because everybody tried to pay for it and download it the minute that it was released.

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, I see the logic in that, I suppose. I have never ever seen a pre-sale download before though. I'm not saying they don't happen, just that I have never seen it. And I thought it was just odd.

 

But let's not get bogged down in this, it's really not a major issue although those people who have ended up being charged 51p too much might disagree with that.

 

Like Gata I have never seen a presale on a download, but as she says we haven't seen everything this world has to offer.

However I have bought singles which have gone straight into the charts at No1, after eagerly awaiting release and no presale, and had no problems whatsoever with servers or the like, and I would imagine that the volume of sales on such tracks would far exceed sales on this one.

So sorry, I still don't get it.

[Gatagordinha]

Like Gata I have never seen a presale on a download, but as she says we haven't seen everything this world has to offer.

However I have bought singles which have gone straight into the charts at No1, after eagerly awaiting release and no presale, and had no problems whatsoever with servers or the like, and I would imagine that the volume of sales on such tracks would far exceed sales on this one.

So sorry, I still don't get it.

 

Yes I agree with you. However, have you seen the Refund thread FD has just started? It mentions that the price of the download was reduced because of 'global demand'. So it appears the market research theory might be valid; they wanted to see how popular the download was likely to be.

 

It makes a bit more sense now, at least from the record company's point of view, though I still can't personally ever imagine pre-ordering a download.

[babspanky]

Yes I agree with you. However, have you seen the Refund thread FD has just started? It mentions that the price of the download was reduced because of 'global demand'. So it appears the market research theory might be valid; they wanted to see how popular the download was likely to be.

 

It makes a bit more sense now, at least from the record company's point of view, though I still can't personally ever imagine pre-ordering a download.

 

Well I don't really understand how it all works. But for instance if I upload a track to say mediafire, once I have done the initial work of uploading, it doesn't matter how many people download it.

I mean Mika already made the tracks, the sales company already uploaded, is it really like physical copies were the more that is bought, the bigger the discount? Doesn't make sense to me.

[Gatagordinha]

Well I don't really understand how it all works. But for instance if I upload a track to say mediafire, once I have done the initial work of uploading, it doesn't matter how many people download it.

I mean Mika already made the tracks, the sales company already uploaded, is it really like physical copies were the more that is bought, the bigger the discount? Doesn't make sense to me.

 

Perhaps they were just testing the water, to see if they could afford to offer the download at a cheaper price? Trying to give value for money? I don't know. I don't know how these things work.

 

[suzie]

Well I don't really understand how it all works. But for instance if I upload a track to say mediafire, once I have done the initial work of uploading, it doesn't matter how many people download it.

I mean Mika already made the tracks, the sales company already uploaded, is it really like physical copies were the more that is bought, the bigger the discount? Doesn't make sense to me.

 

Don't forget we are talking about record company people with special ideas on how to make money and promote music.

Maybe they thought that due to the bigger demand than predicted for the download, they should put a smaller price tag to it so that even more people will download it and it might eventually end up on the charts. So with this move they might be trying to generate more demand as opposed to previous thoughts when this project was not really taken seriously....

But I don't know, I'm not one of them with twisted ideas.

[Gatagordinha]

Don't forget we are talking about record company people with special ideas on how to make money and promote music.

Maybe they thought that due to the bigger demand than predicted for the download, they should put a smaller price tag to it so that even more people will download it and it might eventually end up on the charts. So with this move they might be trying to generate more demand as opposed to previous thoughts when this project was not really taken seriously....

But I don't know, I'm not one of them with twisted ideas.

 

That's what I was trying to say . It does seem plausible. And if it's true, it's quite exciting. I wonder if it could feasibly get into the charts? Top 75? Who knows.