Andrew Dubber, of New Musical Strategies fame, has started an online music store with a money back guarantee:
As far as we can tell, for fairly obvious reasons, there has never been an online music store with a returns policy. But at Liquid Crunch, we're so convinced that you'll absolutely love the hand-selected releases our panel of music experts, consultants and tastemakers have picked out for you, we're taking an unprecedented step: a money back guarantee.
Yep - TRY ANYTHING from Liquid Crunch before the end of April, and if you don't love it, send it back to us within 14 days for a FULL REFUND.
Remember - we don't sell good music on Liquid Crunch. We only sell mind-blowingly great music.
Each of our categories has what we consider to be the ten best possible releases
in that section. If you've never heard of the artist before, or the
genre's a little unfamiliar to you - doesn't matter. We know you'll
love it. You are, after all, a consumer of exceptional taste.
But if we've got it wrong, and it's not to your liking - WE'LL GIVE YOU YOUR MONEY BACK.
So click around, dig around in the categories, taste a few things,
pick up a couple of goodies - like this incredible 80-track, 6 volume Brazilian Beats compilation digital box set for only £15.99.
Give it a listen. Live with it for a couple of weeks.
Don't think it's wonderful? Fine. Send it on back and as long as you
haven't scratched the mp3s, or let them warp in the sun, then you can
have your money back.
But in all honesty... we think you'll like what you hear.
While I like the gimmick of money back if a record isn't to the purchaser's satisfaction, I very much doubt that's why people will go to Liquid Crunch to shop. For me, the strength - and bravery - of the venture is in picking ten songs, and only ten songs, for each musical category. Much like Fopp thrives because it cherrypicks a subset of all available music so that you know whatever you buy there is cool, so Dubber is trusting that his taste is so impeccable he can nail each category, and that the public will spend money accordingly!
In a world of infinite choice, good quality is the one scarce commodity that can still affect demand. What constitutes good quality in any field is highly, highly subjective - and in popular music it is doubly so. Some people know it when they hear it, others know it when they are told about it - and some people are completely clueless and always will be! Yet every piece of music we hear has been selected by someone somewhere along the way, (buskers singing their own songs and friend's bands with their own material excepted!) whether that's a DJ or their programmers, the buyer in a record shop, A&R for a record label, a gig promoter, a friend with a mixtape, or more likely a labyrinthine mixture of all these combined, and that editorial process helps us narrow down the vast swathes of material available to us into a manageable quantity. Dubber's confidence that he knows what Good Quality is is part of that editorial process, and it's up to the individual whether to accept his assistance or not. In effect, he is offering to do the Taste for you, so you don't have to, and he will stand or fall on how reliable his decisions are! If you like his choices, you might well go back, if you don't like them, then chances are you'll stay away, whether you return the mp3s or not, and his reputation takes a hit.
Liquid Crunch is not Dubber's only source of income, so he can afford for it not to take off, or to be only mildly successful, and whether it fails or flies, it will have been a useful exercise to help him understand the modern musical retail climate for his day job as Degree Leader for Music Industries at Birmingham City University the UK and his blog. As I wrote a few months ago, New Musical Strategies is the most cogent precise of the Music Industry's throes as it stumbles blindly in these changing times, and as a chap dabbling at the peripheries of this scene, I'll be watching with interest to see how Liquid Crunch gets on!
MiniBar on 30th May 2008 is a Mobile Special:
