Haha, I was just going to your store and noticed this EP - but no mention of it on Ugress.com or your blog! Got all confuzzled. But there we go, I'm probably one of the first listeners! Yay me and yay you!

Awesome music once again.

Not crazy impressed about the distribution method though. The free downloading seems like a lot of stuff to do before you get to do any stuff. Remember when your EPs had a personality and liberty? http://www.uncannyplanet.com/nebular/ruins/

Now it seems all more "just another set of tracks to just another ever expanding library of faceless songs in just another online store". Give your email and win big! Subscribe and enter your state for low rates!

#2 Yes I know what you mean, I am not particularly happy with the way Bandcamp solves the download, it is even more work when you buy something, but I consider this a stresstest for the system, I need to see how this stuff works before the album goes out.

I am very aware that I have established an expectation of an hassle-free download system for my free content and that moving to a email based might put people off, there will be a cost if I do this, and is the nefits worth it...? I don't know, but I think new people unknown to my previous content model will not react too much of being asked for an email.

Bandcamp has some features I haven't started using yet that makes them a very potential collaborator up ahead.

My biggest gripe is that, if I already HAVE your email, it shouldn't be necessary to ask for it again. But the only way to secure this is to provide the technical solution myself, with logins and passwords and purchase systems and god knows, and that I quite simply have no time for, even if it is very clear to me what I want and how to build it.

I have to move to a system where I rely more on provided services for some parts of my content, I just need to find the right combination of give and take and bits and clouds.

Anyway, numbers will tell me what I need to know, and nothing is static :)

Btw I'd be happy to hear any comments on the distribution, numbers say one thing, and people something else..

As I said on twitter: I purchased the FLAC version and in the middle of my download Opera crashed (not sure it was bandcamps fault). When I re-opened Opera I couldn't find any way to resume the download.. Some kind of login could possibly have solved this? The "choose what to pay"-thing is clever though :)

#2 I did some thinking (of course I did the thinking after I shot), and you are right, the email request is too much hassle. I turned off the requirement to enter email for the 128 kbps download.

#5 (PS. Opera is really struggling with Bandcamp and the Bandcamp people know it). But yes, definitively, that is a huge problem, if the download is terminated prematurely. I think it is a problem bandcamp will have to solve very fast, because lossless downloads are pretty big, and they bundle everything into a zip, so the chance for something to happen during transfer is much higher than for iTunes for example.

(Also I don't like that they use Flash to download files)

Tech: Agree with the comments above, especially as an Opera/Linux user, the experience was less then purrfect to put it mildly. It didn't help that buying three individual tracks meant logging in to Paypal three times etc. (yes I do feel a bit cheap now.)

Pricing: Buying the tracks individually was in this case cheaper than bying the whole album, which struck me as a bit odd. Of course I didn't have to pay the minimum, but err.. {cheap/} :] And I can get the new Röyksopp CD for £8 including shipping vs this download EP for $7. On the other hand it doesn't get much cheaper than the free 128k files, so it's not like I'm going to petition against the pricing model :)

Soundwaves: I like the new tracks. Only listened to them once yet, but they'll serve as a nice appetiser while waiting for the main course in June :)

Woha, earlier today Neal from Bandcamp mailed me and provided me access to that I could re-download my purchased FLAC-madness ;)

Did you contact them Gisle, or did they find out themselves? Either way: this makes me more pleased with bandcamp!

I've had good support from the Bandcamp crew, I also wish the Flash uploader/downloader confirmation prompt didn't come up every time you try to upload/download something. They're aware of it and don't have a way around it at the moment.

Looking forward to digesting your new music, GMM!

What are your views on putting the EP's on spotify, to make people who don't visit the blog or bandcamp aware of the music that is not distributed as phyisical CD's.

btw. will the shadow vault be able at bandcamp? i was not able to find it.

Bandcamp really isn't the best solution technically. It has a lot of flaws. But to go lossless (FLAC) is the way to go and I am truly voting for this.

Hi everyone, thanks for comments.

I think both me and Bandcamp are informed and aware of the shortcomings with this solution, I am also talking to iThinkMusic about their shortcomings and development. Hopefully in one way or other things will be better for the album release this summer.

#10 FreqMod, the EPs will eventually find their way into Spotify, most likely around album release. Pushing out material in the large online music stores takes way much more time than doing it manually in my own systems

Another excellent EP release, love the music and I also love the style of you'r EP covers (fun to se the art development from Sophisticated Wickedness to this one).

I do have one quesiton tough, wich digital download solution do you prefeer that we use? I know you make about zero on iTunes and that uncannyplanet.ithinkmusic.com is better, but what about the bandcamp solution? I just used ithinkmusic to buy a couple of GMM releases and I was very pleased with the service, but if you make more money on the bandcamp system I would certainly use that instead. After all I buy the music so that you can make more of it.

Keep up the excellent work and I can't wait for Ugress 4!

Download of 128kbps mp3s without having to supply an e-mail address is way better. I know you probably collect the e-mail addresses for something useful, but the workflow for getting the free mp3s was too hard. also, most people already provided their e-mail address previously. maybe you (well, bandcamp that is) could add an optional e-mail field, not intervening with the download process, still allowing you to collect addresses.

btw, thanks for a lot of great music. i'll buy as soon as i get a new credit card.

I went to buy the lossless version but it appears that you can't process a Credit Card through the site without creating a PayPal account. I won't do that as I'm still getting SPAM from them on another email address even though I've repeatedly tried unsubscribing from their email lists (over the period of 6 years).

I've used sites that process payments via PayPal without the need to set up an account. I'd be happy to pay using that system if you can enable it.

Cheers,

Malcolm.

#13 Rangor, I'm not sure what I prefer yet, still pondering the systems and statistics from the last few weeks. Btw I do make a decent amount on iTunes/Spotify/etc (approx 50% ends up with me) because I run my own label and control all the rights. Bandcamp and iThinkMusic is pretty much the same income wise.

#14 3xM, totally agree, and when sending out an email to the mailinglist, it became incredibly stupid to ask for email from people who receive the news of EP via email.

#15 Malcolm, thanks for letting me know. Yes that is very stupid, they should provide the non-account version, I'll pass it on or at least try to figure why they don't.

This EP is brilliant!

Bandcamp is not 100 % perfect, indeed, but I like it for the option to choose format and quality. I'd like to see more of your albums available in such manner. It's a pity that official Uncanny Planet store offers only MP3 320.

Is there a chance that all of your music is available in HQ VBR of FLAC?

I recently started switching my music library to AAC but iTunes Music Store is not available in my country, so the preferred way for digital music is getting a FLAC and encode it by myself.