Void Mantra

Truth be told, I discovered the "psytrance" scene very recently (about a year ago). That was when I first listened to Converting Vegetarians by Infected Mushroom* (sorry for the mistake in the title), which was warmly recommended by a colleague. At that time being an underground metal type of guy, I didn't think much of it. It finally clicked on further listening, headphones on and boy did it kicked hard. Still to this day I enjoy this album very much. I know this band doesn't have the best of reputation here, but why??

Sounds like a plan, I might just do that. Thanks for the input Thanks everyone who tried to help out, much appreciated.

Seriously, I've been looking everywhere to purchase a digital copy of that one. No luck, impossible to find. If someone could help out, it would be much MUCH appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to answer. I appreciate and totally see where you're coming at; in this day and age, labels are abused...hard. 20$ for a double cd incl. shipping is absolutely reasonable, no question. Unfortunately for us canadians, shipping charges are usually ludicrous (not the labels fault). On top of that, put the fact that our currency has been on free fall for several years, a 20$ usd album can rapidly transforms to 30-35$ for us canadians. Again, not the labels fault but a reality nonetheless. That's one of the reason why I more often than not choose digital over physical. In this case, it's even more "devastating" giving the fact that I already own half of the release. But anyway, you can't please everyone and I totally understand your point of view. We just can't always have a win-win situation. I just hope that people who actually pay for their music will have the decency to refrain from illegal uploads. As for my bandcamp account, I'm the guy who wrote the mini review for Goad on your bandcamp space. Thanks for trying to make an arrangement, really. Of course, you can count on my future support. Cheers.

Devastated because I mostly buy my music in digital format. Lazarus Rising was a nyp release I paid for and honestly, everybody should but that's a whole different topic. What's strange to me is why an artist/label would want to produce music exclusively for collectors? I think it's a false assumption to think that collecting a physical media makes you a bigger fan than the other guy who's perfectly content with the music itself. Collectors can pround themselves in having some limited edition hard copies, but really I don't see the point of completely ignoring the digital option. Anyway, your label, your choices; I'm just a joe giving his 2 cents.

"...the new music won't be available in digital format." I'm devastated, really You mean, like...never?

Buying this on bandcamp today. 0 won't be my number of choice. Come on guys, let's show some support to this amazing music/label. They've been giving us tons of free music; now it's payback time

Few points: - I've been collecting cds/vinyls since 2000 (mostly from the underground metal scene) for about 1200+ owned physical releases. - I recently transitioned from physical to digital. The switch wasn't smooth, at all. I've been defending the physical media for over a decade and had a lot of heated discussion with pro-digital consumers. Truth be told, my records were collecting dust more than anything else. The more cds I had, the less "special" they were. Digital media has so many asets over the physical, which can't be overlooked. Don't get me wrong, I still value the physical incarnation when it comes to a work of art; a tangible object to cherish instead of some bits on a hard drive. Still, I'm much more selective in regard to which album I'll purchase physically. Point is, I don't think the digital format is losing its momentum, quite on the contrary; which bring me to the next point: - Why the digital sales account for only 20%? Let's suppose the trance community is too old school for the digital age and the vast majority of them won't transition anytime soon; even if they do transition, you will have a decrease in cd sales which won't affect the total sales for an album. In this scenario, there's not much that can be done I think. On the other hand, we can suppose that the digital sales is doing poorly due to the pricing and I think that might be case here, for the most part. Let's be honest, when its comes to digital, the bandcamp pricing is high, very high and that seems to be the norm for Goa labels. And please note, I think it's not a question of whether or not the music is worth the asking price; it does. Your label has put tremendous records, some of them are worth thousands The thing is, I don't know many people who are willing to spend 11 euros on an mp3 album. There's also the fact that it cost as much to buy the actual physical release, which is strange. I guess the idea is to push the cd sales but in my opinion, it just dissuades those who wants to buy digital only. On average, a well established label will let go their digital album on bandcamp for about 7 euros. I've seen several underground label (but nonetheless highly respected and professional) pricing their digial albums somewhere between 5usd to 7usd (about 5euros) and be very, very successful sales-wise. As far as I'm concerned, put this price on bandcamp and I'm buying every of your upcoming releases on day 1, no questions asked. - Entire albums free on youtube. We all hate it, but it's actually a good move as it gives you free exposure. People who don't want to support their music will find a way to download it for free anyway. - Someone suggested to bring back the tapes. I think it might actually work. I've seen several labels bringing those bad boys back and they sell like hotcakes. For well-known labels, it's not rare to see their tapes completely sold out within a month. - Die-hard, ultra limited collector edition usually works very well. Maybe that's a thing that can be done? Anyway, that's just my two cents. Thanks a lot for sharing this article!