Nearly A Nerd.com

Glimmer of hope from Epitaph Records

Last April I bought “The Spirit of Apollo” by hip-hop project N.A.S.A. on vinyl; purchased only because of the free digital copy provided since I still don’t have my turntable hooked back up.  But naturally, Epitaph, the record’s label, only gave three chances at downloading it on their sub-site — with a unique code and password — and it resulted in error each time while also counting toward my three downloads; so even if it was fixed, my download quota would need to be reset.

I immediately fired off an email to Epitaph.  Yesterday — some nine months later — an Epitaph intern replied with a MediaFile download link of the the album with a live Tom Waits cut tossed in for good measure.  Even if the audio quality of the .mp4 files finally provided should be better, any act like this is a step in the right direction.

“Make the money, make sure the money doesn’t make you. . . Be about something.”

Make the jump if you’d like to be bored with the actual brief email exchange.

4/18/09

Bought the new N.A.S.A on vinyl with a free digital download, but something is wrong with your site and it isn’t wanting to download right now. Could I please have the download. I’ve used all my credits trying to download the damn thing. Nothing.

—unique code—

—unique code’s password—

Thanks,

(Me)

——

2:54 PM

Hey Josh, we at Epitaph would like to apologize for the inconvenience. We have been undergoing technical difficulties we were unaware of and have just come across your email among many others. To make this right please go to the link at the bottom of the email to download the album. Also, if you could please reply to us a mailing address we would love to send you a care pack for your troubles. We sincerely apologize for the length of time this technical error was unnoticed.

Thank you for understanding,

The Epitaph Team

http://mediafilelinkprovided

——

8:55 AM

Wow, thanks. Like the old cliche goes: better late than never. I didn’t ever expect this to happen which makes it all the better, I guess, even if the audio quality should be encoded at a higher rate. Plus a live Tom Waits cut! More acts like this would help restore my appreciation of bigger labels.