Awake vinyl to be released this summer?

[Meatrose]

I just received word from "Vinyl Goldmine" - the store from which I pre-ordered the Images and Words vinyl (white edition) - that they are about to start shipping the records. Here's where it gets interesting though, and I'll quote:

"As a thank you from us and the record distributor, everyone who booked  'Images And Words' through our store and ebay shop will receive a 5% discount voucher for 'Awake' Dream Theater vinyl edition album, which will be released this summer."

I don't think this can be considered to be a real (and certainly not an official) announcement but at least they managed to get me excited. 

If this is true it seems as if they're going to release the remaining records in a chronological order.

[Perpetual Change]

Meh. I'm pretty much done with the company that does these vinyl records, so I'll probably pass. Some of the things that came up last time around made me decide that I'd rather not be doing business with them.

[Shadow2222]

Meh. I'm pretty much done with the company that does these vinyl records, so I'll probably pass. Some of the things that came up last time around made me decide that I'd rather not be doing business with them.

I understand the sentiment, but the record itself was of amazing quality. I will overlook the issues and will certainly be buying this as well.

[ZirconBlue]

Meh. I'm pretty much done with the company that does these vinyl records, so I'll probably pass. Some of the things that came up last time around made me decide that I'd rather not be doing business with them.

You mean all the stuff that you complained about after the fact even though it was explained in advance?  Most of which was due to the restrictions imposed by the label? 

[Perpetual Change]

Meh. I'm pretty much done with the company that does these vinyl records, so I'll probably pass. Some of the things that came up last time around made me decide that I'd rather not be doing business with them.

You mean all the stuff that you complained about after the fact even though it was explained in advance?  Most of which was due to the restrictions imposed by the label?

Explained in advance? Nope, sorry. Issues I and others had with the quality of the item were explained way after it arrived and people'd already begun cracking jokes about "blurry" Images and "no" Words. And, sorry, but "restrictions imposed by the label" are not an excuse. Oh, you can only put out an inferior product? Fine. Put quality out, or don't put out anything at all. Don't release something half-assed, cross your fingers, and hope the fanboys who'll buy anything eat it up anyway.

Anyway, the actual reasons I'm not going for any more of these are simple:

1.) It's too expensive. The last two have cost nearly double what it costs to get much nicer packages from other bands.
2.) There were too many issues with people getting their copies last time (I never got tracking info--it just showed up--and last I checked there were still people who never got anything at all)
3.) The swirl items were claimed to be "sold out", but then looney tunes had 'em up on ebay within days. Right...

[Shadow2222]

Meh. I'm pretty much done with the company that does these vinyl records, so I'll probably pass. Some of the things that came up last time around made me decide that I'd rather not be doing business with them.

You mean all the stuff that you complained about after the fact even though it was explained in advance?  Most of which was due to the restrictions imposed by the label?

Explained in advance? Nope, sorry. Issues I and others had with the quality of the item were explained way after it arrived and people'd already begun cracking jokes about "blurry" Images and "no" Words. And, even if it was, "restrictions imposed by the label" are not an excuse for me. Oh, you can only put out an inferior product? Fine. Put quality out, or put out anything at all. Don't release something half-assed, cross your fingers, and hope the fanboys who'll buy anything eat it up anyway.

Anyway, the actual reasons I'm not going for any more of these are simple:

1.) It's too expensive. The last two have cost nearly double what it costs to get much nicer packages from other bands.
2.) There were too many issues with people getting their copies last time (I never got tracking info--it just showed up--and last I checked there were still people who never got anything at all)
3.) The swirl items were claimed to be "sold out", but then looney tunes had 'em up on ebay within days. Right...

I agree with points 2 and 3, but not with 1. There is, of course, a chance that the fans were being taken advantage of, but there is also a chance that we were simply paying a "premium" due to their cost of licensing it in the first place. Dream Theater's original record label is known to be difficult, and I can certainly imagine them charging quite a lot for the licensing. This is backed up by the fact that they wouldn't let the makers of this edition expand it to a gatefold.

Finally (and I'm going backwards here), I don't understand why they should "Put quality out, or don't put out anything at all."

I, as a fan of both DT and vinyl, enjoy any opportunity to have them put together. The record itself is of fantastic quality. In fact, it is the best that I&W has ever sounded. I am easily willing to look past the negatives due to the extremely good positive.

[Perpetual Change]

I get all that Shadow, but the thing I need to stress is that all of that is just an excuse to me. It doesn't really matter who ultimately is to blame for any of the problems I had with the last release when the amount of money I'm going to spend is limited. Again, it's not a matter of the label setting a price and me buying it, but me setting the price and seeing whether Looney Tunes or whoever can meet it. And judging by their last two releases, they probably can't.

[Shadow2222]

I get all that Shadow, but the thing I need to stress is that all of that is just an excuse to me. It doesn't really matter who ultimately is to blame for any of the problems I had with the last release when the amount of money I'm going to spend is limited. Again, it's not a matter of the label setting a price and me buying it, but me setting the price and seeing whether Looney Tunes or whoever can meet it. And judging by their last two releases, they probably can't.

I understand. That makes sense. I won't lie, I will probably buy all of the future releases without hesitation, but I will be increasingly upset if they don't improve the packaging.

Metropolis Pt. 2 was of good quality packaging (at least in my opinion), so I believe they can do it when given the opportunity.

[ZirconBlue]

Meh. I'm pretty much done with the company that does these vinyl records, so I'll probably pass. Some of the things that came up last time around made me decide that I'd rather not be doing business with them.

You mean all the stuff that you complained about after the fact even though it was explained in advance?  Most of which was due to the restrictions imposed by the label?

Explained in advance? Nope, sorry. Issues I and others had with the quality of the item were explained way after it arrived and people'd already begun cracking jokes about "blurry" Images and "no" Words.

No, just about everything you bitched about in the last thread had already been explained prior to your complaints. 

And, sorry, but "restrictions imposed by the label" are not an excuse. Oh, you can only put out an inferior product? Fine. Put quality out, or don't put out anything at all. Don't release something half-assed, cross your fingers, and hope the fanboys who'll buy anything eat it up anyway.

Call me crazy, but I thought the point of these things was the music and the sound.  I think most DT fans who are interested in vinyl are worried about the quality of the records themselves over the quality of the artwork, and would rather have what was released than have nothing. 

[Perpetual Change]

Part of the allure of buying vinyls has always been the big, almost painting-like art and packaging. If I just want a good sound experience, I'll take lossless BluRay 5.1 audio over Vinyl.

And not everything I "bitched" about was answered prior to. That's just not even true. Half of what I complained about last time didn't even occur until after my money'd been spent and, then later, after I received the product. But yeah, there were things to complain about throughout the buying process if that's what your saying.