UNAUTHORISED DOWNLOADS - A DISCOURSE

the following is a response to the blog 'a-special-plan-for-this-world.blogspot.com'
http://a-special-plan-for-this-world.blogspot.com/2009/01/navicon-torture-technologies-dripping.html?showComment=1241160660000#c2240805798680780332

well, it's an argument that i have a difficult time resolving, even within myself. with that said, this is something i have wanted to blog about for some time, and i'm happy to have the opportunity to at least attempt to explain why what you're doing has the potential to hurt the artists, while you and others like you may perceive that your activities are 'promoting' their works.

first off, an answer to your question regarding how many people have discovered my work via the internet:
as an artist who uses the web almost exclusively to promote my activities, i would say that the majority of my listeners/fans have discovered me online. i have always made it easy to communicate with me directly, and my online presence is spread fairly wide between various domains of my own, in addition to several myspace profiles, a yahoo group, and other profiles such as last.fm (a site which i detest from the bottom of my heart), virb, and most recently - facebook (which i am preferring at this point to keep as more of a personal space for close friends and/or people i've not seen in decades.

therefore, it is not a difficult task for someone to contact me directly in order to procure any number of my releases if they so desire.

your assertions regarding this concept that people shouldn't need money to enjoy music are a symptom of our times, and i think it's an issue that people such as yourself don't really take the time to consider in depth.
the music and recording industry has been trudging along since its inception straddling a thin line between art and commerce.
on the one side, you've got your artist who works very hard to achieve the simple act of having their work put out into the world. this can require an incredible level of personal expense.
gear costs money. internet access costs money. producing releases costs money. printing merchandise such as stickers, shirts, posters, pins, all cost money.

if my computer dies or i have a hard drive failure, that costs money to fix.
for an individual such as myself, or the many other underground artists who are my peers, a single release that costs 'X' amount to produce, will very likely never generate a profit, but i do it because i am compelled to create art. without it, my life would be devoid of meaning.
the labels i have worked with and will continue to work with are all run by people like me. people who may not ever see a profitable return on the financial investments they make in order to release the music about which they are so passionate.
for many, the best they can hope for is to break even, to allow their labels to sustain themselves without the need for additional investments from their personal funds. personally speaking, i have yet to achieve this goal after twelve years of running a label. granted, i have yet to take full advantage of what is available to me, but it takes time and energy to reach that goal, and when the circumstances of ones life tend to get in the way, it's a far more difficult journey.

your statement that 'music should not be something you have to be moderately rich to enjoy' is both right and wrong. again, it is the symptom of our times, and there seems to be an almost generational, societal concept that states that music SHOULD be free. however, the chief point that is being overlooked is that, if every single person in the world started 'illegally' (i prefer the term unauthorised) downloading and trading music and refused to pay for it - ever - then the music would cease to exist. not the music that is being traded/downloaded, but anything that had the potential to come out after that.
now, you and people like you who believe that you are doing the artists some great service by posting their work, are actually taking a risk that the people who you claim to be supporting will someday no longer be able to produce this music.

for example, my most recent release, the gospels of the gash 2cd from malignant records, has been out for roughly two months. in my regular google searches for reviews of this release, i have found an ever-increasing number of torrents and blogs offering free downloads of the album, in full quality and for free.
the people who have posted these have gone so far as to state that they are promoting the music and profess to believe that what they are doing helps the artist.
however, i personally have not sold a single copy of the album - yet - meanwhile, it is available for paid download via digstation, from which the money from every purchase will go directly to me. how does making the album available for free, preventing me from seeing any revenue in return for my hard work, help me as the artist?

so, you and others like you can feel free to make as many philosophical arguments stating that music should be free, that there is more to music than money, and that art should be considered first and foremost in deference to commerce, but these arguments fail miserably when they are taken into a larger context where producing art is the way that an artist makes their living, and by 'stealing' or 'trading' that art while removing the artist from the equation ultimately dooms them to failure.

to answer your question about whether or not i personally have downloaded music, i can say that i have never torrented anything. i have gotten copies of leaked releases from friends, and on those few occasions, i have always done so with the knowledge that i'd be purchasing the album upon its release.
but, here's what has happened after i got those leaked albums:
i bought the domestic release, the japanese import, the double vinyl, the tshirt, and then went to see the live performance, where in all likelihood i purchased items at the merch table.
i have supported the artists i love because i want them to be able to keep doing what they do, so i can continue to enjoy their work.

it's true that underground music was less accessible on the same scale that it is now prior to the internet, but a perfect example of the fact that this potentially makes very little difference in this argument is metallica. they started out in a very small local underground scene and rose to this hideously grotesque, monolithic corporate monstrosity, who ultimately led the mainstream record industry's witchhunt against file sharing. they achieved this success primarily without the use of the internet, before the internet even existed in the form we know today.
how much of their rise to fame lent itself to underground tape trading? to endless touring, to self-promotion, to the trappings of the traditional music industry?
all of it.

word of mouth is a tool, the value of which is impossible to properly assess, and small obscure scenes like the 'noise' scene would not be what they are today were it not for connections having been made across long distances via the internet. i'm not sure if that's necessarily a benefit. even a band like swans, as influential and seminal as they have been to so many artists, never came close to achieving mainstream success - certainly nothing even resembling what metallica have seen - and michael gira and jarboe continue to work in relative obscurity in spite of their artistic statures.

for people such as myself, whose work is even less accessible or palatable for the greater masses, the most that can be hoped for is the ability to make my art support itself without going broke in the process. nearly everyone i know who does this stuff has a day job; i personally have been unemployed for two years now and when my benefits run out, the only income i'll be able to count on, if i continue to be unable to find a job, will be piecemeal monies that come in from cd sales.

in 2007, i had an exchange via ichat with a 19 year old fan who told me that he 'might actually buy' the ntt album that was forthcoming at that time. when i asked where he'd gotten my other releases (he'd previously said he owned all of my albums), he told me flatly and seemingly with no sense of shame, that he'd gotten them from soulseek.
i was shocked more by his unflinching sense that he'd done nothing wrong by admitting this to me. as we conversed more, i was able to explain to him something which, by conventional thinking should be a forgone conclusion - that by downloading my albums from third parties who have no relationship to me whatsoever, he was essentially pulling money out of my pockets, which potentially could lead to an end to my activities altogether. subsequent to this discussion, he purchased a few limited cdrs from me.

so, it's a difficult topic that doesn't have any easy answers for any of us. i can tell you first and foremost that i'm not some corporate entity with a legal department that can aggressively go after the hundreds of sites where unauthorised - paid and free - downloads of my albums can be found. i don't get paid royalties on a regular basis, i don't receive payments for publishing, my work is not being considered for use in car commercials or films or television series. i don't sell millions of copies of my records, the largest pressing i can hope for is 1000 copies worldwide, and the chances that i will see more than a few hundred dollars in the time before any one of these releases goes out of print are very slim.
i am just one guy, whose only sense of purpose comes from creating art, struggling to live my life and failing miserably at doing so.

what if i'd been planning to re-press dripping with the power of her flesh? what if i went through the effort and expense of doing so and didn't sell a single copy, not because nobody wanted the album, but because they'd already downloaded it from your blog? should i not hold you, or others like you, personally responsible?

i have no quarrel with you personally, i appreciate the support of those who follow my work and i rely on that support in many ways, but i think that you and others like you fail to realise that posting free downloads of entire albums by underground artists potentially does more harm than good. your argument that if people were not downloading from you they could do it elsewhere is simply not good enough to justify the practise.

i'm not going to tell you to remove the download if you feel you're doing me a service, but i do ask that you think about what i've said and consider whether you are legitimately doing a service to the artists you claim to be supporting. ask yourself if you are not instead causing them serious harm by contributing to a larger machine that will eventually ruin them. ask yourself, how exactly are you and others like you helping these artists by giving something away for free that they have put their blood and sweat into, that may or may not have been the result of a tremendous sacrifice on the part of everyone involved?

GOSPELS BOXSET PHOTOS

NTT fan Marc Benner has kindly posted photographs of his copy of THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH LIMITED BOXED EDITION.

NTT. THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH LIMITED BOXED EDITION NOW AVAILABLE FROM MALIGNANT RECORDS

NOW AVAILABLE FROM MALIGNANT RECORDS!!!

NTT. THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH - LIMITED BOXED EDITION
After 12 years of producing tormented, vicious rage and doomed, miserable alienation, NTT presents its final offering to the deities of self-hate in the form of this monolithic special boxed edition of THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH.
This box serves as the doorway into a hellish realm of absolute loneliness, where the fear of physical pain is overshadowed by the demons of emotional torture.

Also included is the 2CD release YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE LEGENDARY. Consisting of 18 collaboration tracks and remixes, these two discs boast a tracklist featuring phenomenal artists both obscure and infamous, who have joined forces with NTT to construct an epic of undulating drones and visceral screams.
Once again, NTT blurs the lines between the brutish intensity of power electronics and introspective dark ambient contemplations.

The list of collaborators includes:
DEUTSCH NEPAL, EIDULON, HERBST9, JARBOE, KRISTOFFER NYSTRÖMS ORKESTER, THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE, TROUM and many others.

AUDIO PREVIEW AVAILABLE HERE:
http://annihilvs.blogspot.com/2009/04/flashwidgetz_7673.html

THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH - LIMITED BOXED EDITION

100 COPIES INCLUDING:

NTT. THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH 2XCD
NTT. YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE LEGENDARY 2XCD
2 (TWO) PINS
2 (TWO) STICKERS
2 (TWO) MINI POSTCARDS
1 (ONE) 8x10 MINIPOSTER
1 (ONE) TSHIRT

PLEASE SPECIFY SHIRT SIZE IN NOTES SECTION WHEN ORDERING.
Available in S, M, L, and XL...
$50.00

ALL HOUSED IN A 9" x 12" METAL TIN WITH ETCHED ARTWORK


http://www.malignantrecords.com/catalog

OR:

http://www.malignantrecords.com/search.mpl?type=new

THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH-04.23.09-SUPPLEMENT

Believe it or not, I have just spent the bulk of today packing a pretty sizeable number of parcels, including all copies of [NTT.FINAL PHASE], and assorted other outstanding orders that have stacked up from the past YEAR.

I had hoped to make it to the post office before they closed at 6pm today, but my day was cut in half when i ran out of packing tape and bubble mailers and had to take a quick run up to staples.

So, i have put the box of packages in my car, and will bring them to be shipped at the crack of noon tomorrow.
It is my intention to send these parcels via media rate, because it will probably empty my bank account to send everything at once. However, i am determined to get these the fuck off my back as soon as i can, so i'll take the hit for those of you who have been waiting patiently (and in some cases, not so patiently) for your items to show up.

I do apologise profusely for the ridiculous delay, but all i can say for myself is that i have had an exceptionally difficult two years on both financial and psycho-emotional fronts. Those of you who have stuck with me since the early days are well-versed in how much trouble i have with handling individual orders, and how tumultuous my life tends to be. Getting to the post office is a particularly strenuous task when one can barely get out of bed every day.

In any case, i'm sure there are still some orders that have fallen through the cracks, and i know that some orders that were mailed out last year never reached their destination (what the fuck is it with the german postal system???), and i have about 9-12 orders still listed as outstanding from what seems like a million years ago, which i will attempt to take care of some time soon.

Once again, i find myself crawling out of a fucking mental and emotional abyss, where i've lain for the past four months, and today was merely the first very small step upward.
Fuck the ruiners.

I'll post again when i hear from Jason about the boxsets.

THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH-04.23.09

"I tried to find the rhythm of the world where I used to live. I followed the current. I was silent, attentive, I made a conscious effort to smile, nod, stand, and perform the millions of gestures that constitute life on earth. I studied these gestures until they became reflexes again. But I was haunted by the idea that I remembered her wrong, and somehow I was wrong about everything."
- Chris Kelvin, Steven Soderbergh's Solaris



Well, it's April 23, and that means that THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH boxset will become available from MALIGNANT RECORDS by the end of the day. I don't think a price has been set yet. Please direct all inquires to Jason at MALIGNANT RECORDS.
http://www.malignantrecords.com
http://www.myspace.com/malignantrecords

This day holds some personal significance for me, and I will try to look upon it as a time for moving forward. I don't really have any other choice.
I have been delayed in sending out the copies of [NTT.FINAL PHASE] during the past couple of weeks for financial reasons, but i plan to get a bunch of stuff mailed out today.



NTT. THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH - LIMITED BOXED EDITION
After 12 years of producing tormented, vicious rage and doomed, miserable alienation, NTT presents its final offering to the deities of self-hate in the form of this monolithic special boxed edition of THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH.
This box serves as the doorway into a hellish realm of absolute loneliness, where the fear of physical pain is overshadowed by the demons of emotional torture.

Also included is the 2CD release YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE LEGENDARY. Consisting of 18 collaboration tracks and remixes, these two discs boast a tracklist featuring phenomenal artists both obscure and infamous, who have joined forces with NTT to construct an epic of undulating drones and visceral screams.
Once again, NTT blurs the lines between the brutish intensity of power electronics and introspective dark ambient contemplations.

The list of collaborators includes:
DEUTSCH NEPAL, EIDULON, HERBST9, JARBOE, KRISTOFFER NYSTRÖMS ORKESTER, THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE, TROUM and many others.

AUDIO PREVIEW AVAILABLE HERE:
http://annihilvs.blogspot.com/2009/04/flashwidgetz_7673.html

THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH - LIMITED BOXED EDITION

100 COPIES INCLUDING:

NTT. THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH 2XCD
NTT. YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE LEGENDARY 2XCD
2 (TWO) PINS
2 (TWO) STICKERS
2 (TWO) MINI POSTCARDS
1 (ONE) 8x10 MINIPOSTER
1 (ONE) TSHIRT (ALL MENS' SIZES S/M/L/XL, AND GIRLS' S)

ALL HOUSED IN A 9" x 12" METAL TIN WITH ETCHED ARTWORK

Once again, please direct all inquiries to MALIGNANT RECORDS.
http://www.malignantrecords.com
http://www.myspace.com/malignantrecords

YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE LEGENDARY - AUDIO PREVIEW - FULL VERSION

YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE LEGENDARY

The second and final mastering session for the forthcoming two-disc release YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE LEGENDARY took place today, and the audio component of the limited boxed edition of THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH has officially been completed.

Many thanks to my good friend Kevin Reilly at LAST STOP RECORDING & REHEARSAL for generously lending his seemingly endless expertise to this release. Kevin went above and beyond my expertise, pulling sounds and frequencies out of these tracks that were only just beneath the surface prior to this process.

Obviously, I also have to thank the artists who contributed to this amazing collection. These are the very final tracks to have been worked on using the NTT name, and they stand apart from my previous output in many ways, particularly due to an increased sense of maturity and musicality not found in any other NTT release. I am truly honoured and exceedingly fortunate to have collaborated with these individuals.
I proudly consider some of these tracks the best pieces of audio I have ever created.

The final tracklist follows:

BOOK III - NURTURED WOUNDS

I
EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS - NTT + AUN
II
SOUL EATER - NTT + BLACK SUN
III
THE LAST EUROPEAN (DAMNATION EDIT) - NTT + CENOTYPE
IV
CULT OF DOOM - NTT + THE [law-rah] COLLECTIVE
V
HEADWOUND - NTT + INSWARM
VI
I WON'T SURVIVE IN A WORLD WITHOUT YOU - NTT + COVET
VII
AN EXERCISE IN PAIN-EXTENDED VERSION - NTT + AUTOCLAV 1.1
VIII
ECLIPSED BY A BLUE STAR - NTT + HERBST9
IX
KNOWING NO MERCY, THEY RAGE AGAINST MANKIND - NTT + HECATE

BOOK IV - THE SCHISM YAWNS WIDE

I
YOU ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR - NTT + JARBOE
II
VICTVM VERMIS - NTT + DEUTSCH NEPAL
III
GUMROT (DECAYING FACE EDIT) - NTT + FRAGMENT KING
IV
IN THE FOLDS OF THE FLESH - NTT + KRISTOFFER NYSTRÖMS ORKESTER
V
SHE THROWS ME TO THE DOGS - NTT + PROMETHEUS BURNING
VI
LOVE THEME - NTT + STEVE MOORE
VII
PILLARS OF FLESH - NTT + EIDULON
VIII
SONNENAUFGANG - NTT + TROUM
IX
THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS, DREAMS INEVITABLY LEAD TO HIDEOUS IMPLOSIONS - NTT + THE BIRD CAGE THEATER


The limited boxed edition of THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH will be officially released on Thursday, April 23, 2009.

More information and an audio preview will be forthcoming.

THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH-04.01.09

"I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart,
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears—
Ah, she doth depart."

- William Blake


This past winter was like one long and brutal night, filled with bad dreams and hunger pains, but for what it's worth I'm still here.
My life took some turns I wasn't prepared for, and I know that I have lost some pretty significant pieces of myself along the way, but there's nothing I can do but limp onward. I have nothing more to give than my love.


01. [NTT.FINAL PHASE] 5XCDR
Progress has been made finally, and the remaining copies of [NTT.FINAL PHASE] are nearing completion. I plan/hope to get them all packaged tonight and to possibly ship them out beginning tomorrow.
Other overdue orders will be forthcoming alongside these parcels.

02. NTT. THE GOSPELS OF THE GASH-LIMITED BOXED EDITION
This monolithic release is on its way to completion. I have collected 17 of the 18 tracks that will appear of YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE LEGENDARY, the two-disc collection of remixes and collaborations which will serve as the final nail in the NTT coffin.
Starting tonight, I will be mastering this material with my good friend Kevin Reilly at Last Stop during the next week or so, while I wait for the final track to come in. The shirts and printed matter are in production as I sit here.
The official release date of the boxset will be April 23. No price has been set as of this moment, so please hold off on contacting MALIGNANT until the formal announcement is made.

03. NTT. BOTTOMFEEDER
It had been my hope that this cassette would have seen the light of day by now, but hopefully it shouldn't be too much longer.

04. THE SWEET SUFFERING SERIES
Beginning in June, I will be partnering up with Lenny B of CENOTYPE to form a new label imprint called SWEET SUFFERING, a combined effort of ANNIHILVS and ORIGINS PRODUCTIONS. This will consist of a series of limited CD releases (most likely distributed via MALIGNANT RECORDS), covering a broad spectrum of underground, electronic and experimental music ranging from darkambient and power electronics to doom and post-metal.
The first release in this series will be the long-delayed solo album from Martin Bladh of IRM, STUDY FOR A THEATER OF CRUELTY. More on this as plans develop.


______________________________________________

The NTT webspace has been dramatically updated, and I will continue to tweak it and add some new features leading up to the release of the boxset.
______________________________________________

That is all there is for now.
Thank you.