I planned on a best/worst of the year list tonight, but something irked me so bad that I had to push that post back a few days.

Last week I bought Fac.Dance, a compilation by Strut Records that features many rare and hard-to-find dance tracks from Factory Records. Many of them are out-of-print and have never seen the light of day either digitally or on CD. I should have loved the record, but Strut had to go and fuck it all up.

I bought the album on vinyl in a 2LP set, it is also available as a 2CD set and digitally. Both the CD and digital versions include 24 tracks. However, the the vinyl version only has twelve songs.  While it does also include a download code, that code only gives you the 12 tracks that are on the LPs, and not the complete digital or CD versions of the album.

Confused yet? Don’t worry, you will be.

In addition that rip-off, all three versions have slightly different tracklistings. “Wild Party” and “Knife Slits Water (12″ mix”) by A Certain Ratio are only on the CD version; while “Black Water” by Kalima and “Motherland” by Royal Family And The Poor are only on the digital version. Furthermore, “Pretenders of Love” by Shark Vegas is on the LP version and digital version, but not on the CD version. If you want all the songs, you’ll have to buy the 2CD version, and then buy the digital exclusive tracks individually.

But why? Why does the vinyl version get the shaft? And why are their subtle differences between the digital and CD releases.

Well, I asked Strut’s Twitter account those very questions. According to them,  it was a licensing issue. Different versions have different songs because they could not “license every track in each format.”

But why not include a complete digital download with the 2LP version? Well, for that, they also hide behind the vague cover of “rights issues,” saying that they could not include those songs as “free content” because they did not own them.

Now, I’m sorry, but who said anything about free? The 2LP version costs significantly more than both the 2CD version and the digital version. Why not eat some of that profit by providing the album on CD, or including a complete download code (not for FREE, but as part of the cost).

Shit, you could probably even raise the price of the 2LP set to offset the difference. People like me would still buy it anyway.

It gets worse! Strut’s incompetence does not end there!

Until I pointed it out to them via Twitter, their store page for Fac.Dance featured the 2CD tracklist no matter which version you chose to buy. That omission has been corrected, but the page is still littered with errors and other confusing anomalies.

The digital version that Strut is showcasing on that page only has 17 tracks. Meanwhile, the digital version that Amazon is selling has 24. It should also be mentioned that the 17 track version that Strut is selling directly costs MORE than the 24 track version currently on sale at Amazon.

There is also a mistake on Strut’s website in regards to the 2CD version. Their store claims that the opening track of the second CD is New Order’s “Confusion.” However, if you go to THIS page at Strut’s website, that song is absent from the tracklist entirely. On that same page, “Time” by Minny Pops is labeled as a digital exclusive even thought it is on the CD tracklisting.

I probably spent more time writing and editing this rant than Strut did writing and editing their copy for the Fac.Dance release. Their “effort” in promoting and compiling this album reeks of laziness and corporate greed. I will never buy a Strut album again, and I suggest you exercise caution if you are considering doing so.

And on that note, Merry Christmas! I’ll see you all next week.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 23rd, 2011 at 12:34 am and is filed under No music, rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.