Free stuff
About 8 years ago and for reasons that I still don't fully understand, I found myself working in the retail sector. We're all friends here so I confess - I managed a Pizza Hut. In fact over 15 months I managed 3, one in Bradford, one in Leeds and one in Slough. Although I was a pretty good manager, considerate to my staff, profitable and all that crap, the job bought me into daily contact with the general public and so was never destined to be a winner. I just have one of those faces that says 'I hate you and all you stand for, leave me the fuck alone'. But I coped. Actually I drank and smoked to cope, but at least I got free pizzas when the munchies struck. I have a cupboard full of Stuffed Crust trays to this day. They're very handy as they cook oven chips nice and evenly. But I digress.
The one thing I learned from my time selling over-priced cheese on toast to people without the energy (or in Slough the brains) to cook their own tea was that the word FREE motivates the great unwashed more than any other word in the English language. I could run "buy one, get one half price" promotions until the second coming of our Lord with all his choirs of angels and it would make only a nominal difference to my profit margin. But put the word FREE in a promotion and I was hiring 16 year old, bottle blonde school drop-outs to work the phones faster than I could sleep with them. I mean interview them. Yes. Interview.
And the word free is a great motivator isn't it? That's what record companies don't understand about their 'great' offers via the new, improved pay per download Napster type sites;
"Come to Sony for your music downloads. It's only 99p per track!"
"Cool, but this torrent site I found - it's free. Thousands of tracks, real good music as well, not the bland, soul-less, ball-less crap you sell and I don't pay a penny. Fuck you!!"
Which leads me nicely on to Free Albums Galore. Before any lawyers get a-twitchin there is nothing illegal going on. The site simply provides links to free sourced music. And they have a stunningly eclectic mix of styles and genres. When I first discovered the site I found myself downloading one or two tracks from every post, deleting the stuff I didn't like while voraciously consuming the stuff I enjoyed. I really suggest you do the same - broaden your horizons. What's the worst that can happen? If you want to try one new thing purely on my recommendation have a listen to some Chants of the Russian Orthodox Church. Turn the lights down, open your mind and just listen. It is quite astoundingly superb. You won't understand a word of it so there's no chance of you waking up a convert to the faith but it really, really is top notch. Trust me.(?)
The one thing I learned from my time selling over-priced cheese on toast to people without the energy (or in Slough the brains) to cook their own tea was that the word FREE motivates the great unwashed more than any other word in the English language. I could run "buy one, get one half price" promotions until the second coming of our Lord with all his choirs of angels and it would make only a nominal difference to my profit margin. But put the word FREE in a promotion and I was hiring 16 year old, bottle blonde school drop-outs to work the phones faster than I could sleep with them. I mean interview them. Yes. Interview.
And the word free is a great motivator isn't it? That's what record companies don't understand about their 'great' offers via the new, improved pay per download Napster type sites;
"Come to Sony for your music downloads. It's only 99p per track!"
"Cool, but this torrent site I found - it's free. Thousands of tracks, real good music as well, not the bland, soul-less, ball-less crap you sell and I don't pay a penny. Fuck you!!"
Which leads me nicely on to Free Albums Galore. Before any lawyers get a-twitchin there is nothing illegal going on. The site simply provides links to free sourced music. And they have a stunningly eclectic mix of styles and genres. When I first discovered the site I found myself downloading one or two tracks from every post, deleting the stuff I didn't like while voraciously consuming the stuff I enjoyed. I really suggest you do the same - broaden your horizons. What's the worst that can happen? If you want to try one new thing purely on my recommendation have a listen to some Chants of the Russian Orthodox Church. Turn the lights down, open your mind and just listen. It is quite astoundingly superb. You won't understand a word of it so there's no chance of you waking up a convert to the faith but it really, really is top notch. Trust me.(?)
posted by phylos @ 19:10
1 Comments:
Take me back to the motherland!
The Russian choir chilled me out and the links to the Russian military songs put a chill down my spine. Amazing how consuming enough vodka can give you duel nationality!
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