I think the cost from Steve direct to outside Australia was $20 Australian for the Cd and the same again for shipping. It seemed quite a lot, but I just worked out that $40 Australian is actually only about £22 so I feel a bit bad now. It just seemed an awful lot for shipping.
I can attest that he's eating a lot of the shipping cost himself. This package was more than just one CD, but he charged $20 for shipping and this is what he actually paid at the post office. EDIT: I found the one my Eleven Women CD came in and the shipping charge on that was A$36 as well. Notice the difference in weight, 0.063 kg versus 0.511 kg: I agree that it's a ridiculous amount of money, but by charging US$20 for shipping he's only getting A$25.76 meaning he's eating ten bucks of the shipping cost himself. And US$20 translates to about £15 or something like that, obviously a lot but not catastrophic.
I wrote to Martin Kennedy about this on facebook. I told him to think outside of the box. Are we really supposed to pay more money for the shipping than the actual product? It's ridiculous! Did he respond? No! "They" could care less 'cause they're not suffering financially. They're not the tortured artists that they like to portray. If they were, they'd find a "creative" solution to the problem. If they really cared about lowering the costs for us, the fans, they would create storage rooms/spaces around the world, so as to make sure that the shipping costs would be kept down to a minimum! It's not rocket science! - Thomas H. Thomsen.
Um... it's not their fault that postage rates are insane, nor is it their fault that buying storage/distribution units in every country is costly and they probably won't sell enough to make that worth their while. I agree that paying more for shipping than the product itself is annoying, and sure, $40 all told for a music CD is a lot. But it's not any worse than $50-$100 when they end up on the secondhand market because virtually everything Kilbey/Church related is well-known to scalpers. Sure, if you can find it for $20, go for it, but I don't see why buying directly is such an issue.
It makes no sense why he doesn't have some form of distribution in the US. He always had some sort of distribution here, but as of lately he doesn't seem to care about it. It was also never really a problem when they toured here every year or so. You could always just wait to pick up everything at the merchandise table.
I'm guessing the amount of money he would make for US sales isn't enough to counterbalance paying a distributor and the cut that they'd take. The shipping is insane and turns a lot of people off, but he still offers the option. Plus, he signs every copy he mails out.
Well, he's most likely stubborn and set in his ways which I'm guessing is one of the reasons there is no more Marty or Peter. Marty still releases albums that are much easier to purchase in the US. It's through Schoolkids Records which Steve has been on record saying he thinks they are thieves. He may not make much money, but so many more people would hear his music. At this stage in his career he must not care. He makes music and locally releases it in Australia. If he ever tours the US again I hope he brings along copies of everything! Last time I saw him at a gig of about 10 people he pulled out a box of merchandise that you could rummage through, but I already had pretty much everything that was in the box. I'm glad he is making so much music, but I would like to get my hands on a copy without paying over $50 for a CD. It doesn't make sense for a man of his talent and following to not have US distribution.
Stubborn and set in his ways, yes. However, it occurred to me that his recent CDs are actually distributed through Foghorn Records which is an Australian distribution company. So he's actually got really good distribution in Australia. Foghorn not having international branches is actually a bigger question than one single artist. At the same time, Physical Media Is Dead™ so maybe they don't see a need. Even though that's literally what they do.
Must be the subject matter because I purchased the All India Radio bundle through Bandcamp upon release and emailed him regarding my autograph preference and received a prompt & gracious response. I am happy to order direct from the artist. I too have used the SK direct PayPal method to secure CD copies of Jupiter 13 as well as Eleven Women and couldn't be more pleased (although SK doesn't respond with any "it's been shipped", "thank you" or any other message). All I can say right now is ignore All India Radio at your peril. The bonus LP of The Shining Cosmos is a treat. Side one is a Tangerine Dream sequencer-lover's dream. Side two dubs some Under The Milky Way action in such a cool way. Looking forward to Afterworld on vinyl. I've been living with the downloads for a bit and absolutely love the album.
Yeah, expecting a response to a message like that is a fool's errand. My (limited) interactions with Martin suggested he was a very pleasant and affable fellow, but I don't blame him for not responding to that.
A fool's errand? Martin has always responded to any questions I may have had in the past, when I was writing reviews of All India Radio and Kilbey/Kennedy album releases, and we were doing Q & A's. I've mentioned earlier that he is a very nice guy. He sent me 3 All India Radio vinyl records as well as 3 Kilbey/Kennedy albums on CD as a way of saying "thank you". I've always been trying to "spread the word", so to speak, which is why I tried to "inspire" him to think outside the box.
Only listened to parts of it. Will have to listen to it from start to finish. I'm a huge Tangerine Dream fan.
Well, no offense, but if you worded the message to him the same way it was worded in the post, then I'm not surprised he didn't respond. Shipping costs are outrageous, but it's not the fault of the musicians. Hiring a distributor for multiple countries costs a lot, they charge probably monthly to hold onto your stock and keep a percentage of the sales. Plus, you'd need to pay for expensive shipping to get it there in the first place. Kilbey is on Foghorn, which is a decent-sized Australian distributor, and I'm not sure where Martin is but I don't think he still uses his Inevitable label anymore. I would imagine he goes through a distributor now, too. In those cases, the distributor is the one these questions should be addressed to, not the artists who work with them.
I didn't. I'm not a fool. I was merely expressing my frustration on this forum because I really wish him the best. I have no intention of wasting any more time or energy on negativity, so let's return to what this thread was really supposed to be about: a celebration of Kilbey's solo and side projects.
I got an email from Qrates yesterday, letting me know that Jupiter 13 has reached it's goal and the LP pressing will be going forward (which, yeah, we already knew). No actual date for when the LPs will be pressed and shipped.
At first, I didn't quite know what to make of The Hall Of Counterfeits, but lately this double album's really been growing on me. If you want to listen to a handful of the songs that are among my favorites, then give these tracks a fair chance:
