On The Availability of Wizard Rock

fromtheeditors

Wizard rock fans can often be insatiable when it comes to listening to the music they love. They stream it, download it, buy it at shows, and very often want to expand their libraries as much as they can.

That’s a wonderful thing.

However, there’s one key issue that faces fans nowadays – the lack of availability of some older wizard rock.

We’ve talked in the past about how the downfall of MySpace has taken away a primary way for fans to listen to the music they love, and that’s still a fairly big issue when it comes to music that’s no longer hosted there (or anywhere else, for that matter). Where can wrock fans go to both listen to music they enjoy, as well as find new bands?

But just as big an issue can be the simple fact that a decent amount of older wizard rock is now no longer available.

We hesitate to dwell too much on how things were “back in the day”, but all one needs to do is go online and try to find a legitimate way to purchase and download music from some classic (and very good) wizard rock bands.

For any number of reasons, a good chunk of classic wrock is no longer available to purchase. Fans can go to places like YouTube to listen, or even download old wizard rock podcasts to listen in. We’re asked via email and Twitter often by fans as to how they can find and purchase songs by bands they like. In fact, we saw one recent interaction between a wrock fan and a couple of “retired” bands on Twitter, because the fan really wanted to get a copy of an older song that could no longer be found online.

Now, we get that there are a wide range of reasons why that music is no longer available. Perhaps the band has moved on, and no longer wishes to make their music available – something that is entirely within their rights. Some bands may have ended their relationship with certain distribution sources, which charge bands a fairly high fee to make their music available on sources like iTunes and Spotify.

There are also a number of really good wizard rock compilations that are no longer available either. A lot of bands recorded songs specifically for those compilations that are simply no longer found anymore, which is a darn shame. In general though, just listening to the Geek Beat Radio stream of all wizard rock this weekend brought up more than a few songs that could not be found for download or purchase at places like iTunes or Bandcamp, where the majority of wizard rock fans would go to buy songs they love.

We here at the Wizrocklopedia would like to make an appeal to bands who no longer host some (or any) of their music online for download or purchase. We feel that fans worldwide would love to be able to once again purchase or download your music, which perhaps was only available via iTunes or CDs that are no longer in print. And because of that, we’d like to ask you to seriously consider putting your music online somewhere fans can purchase it, such as Bandcamp which would allow you to get paid for your music without costing you any up-front monthly or annual fees out of pocket.

Hey, if you even wanted to post it someplace at Mediafire and allow fans to download it for free with your permission, that’d be wonderful as well. We’d far prefer to redirect interested fans to a source that you are comfortable with, rather than see fans offering free versions of your music that you’d rather see available for purchase. When it comes down to it, we’d even seriously consider a Wizrocklopedia source to make music available to fans.

So what do you think? We’re interested in your thoughts and opinions. Wizard rock fans, leave a comment below and tell us what albums and compilations you’d love to see online for purchase! Bands, what are your thoughts on making your music available once again?  Let’s see if we can figure out a way to get some great music out there.

11 responses to “On The Availability of Wizard Rock”

  1. Denni Towle | The Cruciatus Curse Avatar

    The Cruciatus Curse will definitely have all of our music up for streaming or purchase on 10.31.16! This year Halloween means album number TH1RTE3N!

    1. jule Avatar
      jule

      Nothing like being late to the party but I was curious as to whether you ever put up the Cruciatus Curse tunes with Marked as His Equal? Been looking on Bandcamp but can’t find it…
      By the way Denni, I’m obsessed with Crucio and Arise, amazing songs!

      1. Denni Towle Avatar
        Denni Towle

        Thank you so much! I do have to get all my music back up, I believe I do have the music I did with Mark. I will let you know 🙂 thank you again!

        Read Books or I’ll Curse You!
        Denni

  2. Taz_UK Avatar
    Taz_UK

    The album I most wanted to get hold of a copy of was Split Seven Ways ‘Wormwood and Wolfsbane’ but I could never get one, also some of the early compilations like ‘Wrock Beat’, ‘Wrocking on the Borderline’ and ‘An Enchanted Christmas’. I’d also like the Alas Earwax! album(s).

    When I first got into wizard rock I used the wrock wiki to track down bands/songs – I still have some of the information that I copied from it while I was trying to get hold of the songs, especially for the smaller/harder to get bands.

    I’ve just checked and I have at least 1 track by 359 different bands, and there are 15 bands that I never managed to get anything from

  3. Christie Avatar

    Lol I’ll gladly put whatever 142 Staircases stuff ppl want online, even if some (most) of it is old and embarrassing. Ppl can download one thing I’m actually reasonably proud of on bandcamp for free right now anyhow 🙂 and its on YouTube and MySpace (lol).
    I’d be super excited to hear some of the classic wizard rock music from “olden days” that isn’t online anymore if the artists are willing to share/sell it! And I HOPE that geekbeatradio does another wizard rock day/weekend (I had to work allll day Sunday and missed most of it, alas!)
    🙂

  4. Russ Avatar

    Taz, those are a few of the bands that we’re often asked about! Marked as His Equal is another.

    We’d love to see some of those compilations come back in some form. As noted above, bringing them back via a place like Bandcamp would be (relatively) easy and would help raise even more money for those charities.

    Of course, some bands may simply not want their music online for various reasons – and that’s OK. But if there’s bands out there that have their old songs still on hard drives or CDs someplace and are willing to take the time to put them online, we’re sure there are LOTS of people who would be very happy.

  5. Susannah Avatar

    As a fan who joined the wrock scene late, I do hope that older wrock becomes more accessible. I like to put up lyrics regardless, but lyrics when there is no (‘official’) way to listen to the song on the internet makes me feel mean. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, but even small things like Bandcamp really help (How Airplanes Fly did it a while ago, which was wonderful).

  6. Taz_UK Avatar
    Taz_UK

    Hurrah for a new Cruciatus Curse album! I look forward to checking that my CC collection is complete.

    Christie – I have a few of your old songs and I think they’re great. Please put your work where people can hear and enjoy it. I didn’t know about the Bandcamp song so I’m off to get it now. Thank you 🙂

    Russ, I’m lucky enough to have the Marked As His Equal albums (2 of them) and a t-shirt – although I’d happily take anything else that was offered by him.

    I need a Creevey Crisis discography, too so I can see what, if anything, I’m missing.

    1. Denni Towle | The Cruciatus Curse Avatar

      I appreciate that! Do you guys remember that Marked As His Equal & The Cruciatus Curse did a few songs together? Maybe we can get that out too!

  7. Camie Avatar

    Permission to distribute (Or place on BandCamp for either the artists or charities, or whatever to earn some $$) would be a wonderful thing. I know that I have a lot of older stuff available on external hard drives because I am a digital hoarder. I also have an inkling that a lot of the older fans of the fandom may be in similar boats to me… having copies of things that were long considered lost.

  8. Russ Avatar

    Exactly, Camie. There are probably a lot of us who have older tracks from albums that aren’t available any more, or even were technically never released. I’ve slowly been in the process of reaching out to some bands to see what can be done, as I’m a firm believer in NOT sharing if the creator of the music doesn’t want you to. In any case, I look forward to new music from bands both old and new, as well as some tracks making their way back online through legitimate ways.

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