Dear Record Labels...

I'm milling around the music blogs I like to frequent, getting albums here and there (vinyl rips and what not) and I notice this album.

Bill Evans - New Jazz Conceptions.

 

I'd seen this before. I have it, somewhere, in fact. But I had never seen it with the red bars around it. I'd seen it this way:

So I download the album (I have a vinyl copy, but no digital copy) and iTunes gives me the red bar cover.

 

I don't want the worthless red bar cover. I want the original cover. Google Image Search!

I found it, attached a high res version to my music files, and viola! All better. Looks better when playing on the AppleTV or my iPad/iPhone.

 

Why do they do this? Laziness. iTunes is given the artwork by the label, who just gives them the most recent cd release, and it was a trend when cds were becoming ubiquitous that they would take old albums and "surround" the artwork with color and data about the audio encoding. Remember when cds were "AAD" "ADD" or "DDD"? Instead of embracing new technology and doing something creative with it, the labels are just holding on for dear life the old way and throwing their junk at the new stuff. Why is there piracy, again?

...

 

I have the Dave Brubeck album Time Out on the wall in my house, among other albums.

Dave Brubeck - Time Out

 

I wanted to get one of the other S. Neil Fujita jazz record covers, Mingus Ah Um, on the wall as well. So I looked at my favorite online record store, Insound, and saw this:

 

Now, is Insound selling the cd as the record? I doubt it, but they're using the cd art as the LP cover art on their site. Now I don't want to buy it, because I'm not sure what I'm getting. I want this:

So next time I'm in a record store, I'll buy it. But Insound could have had my money, if it weren't for this laziness.

 

...

 

What is the deal with putting a box around the album art, anyway?